Management and Wolfgang Keller Essay

1) Who is Wolfgang Keller? What are his key strengths and weaknesses? Wolfgang Keller is the Managing Director of Konigsbrau-TAK, which is the Ukranian subsidiary of a major premium beer brewer. Keller has previous experience in financially turning around a German food product manufacturer’s two subsidiaries (relatively smaller in scale than his current organization). Keller’s foremost strength is his ability to turn around an apparently difficult (for example, the economic turn-around of various subsidiaries) and at times apparent impossible situations (for instance, resolution of a distributor’s lawsuit, collection of payment from a near-bankrupt distributor, etc.). He has been successful in managing an organization in a foreign country for which he has made efforts to learn the language and understand the business culture. He has a hands-on management style and likes to be actively involved in the operational aspects of the business. He has the ability to build personal and, if needed, informal relationships with his staff and c ustomers alike which has been instrumental in the better performance of his company. As Dr Haussler has indicated, many of Keller’s weaknesses are â€Å"the other side† of his strengths. For example, his attempts at being hands-on can be perceived as over-interference by his sub-ordinates. Also, by trying to manage situations by himself he makes himself open to criticism over his team-working and proper delegation abilities. Keller himself recognizes that he can be impatient and may not give enough time for his ideas to settle in the minds of others. Another of his weaknesses, again as highlighted by his manager, seems to be his less than cordial relationship with corporate staff and infrequency of reporting to the corporate headquarters and his line manager. This is also something that may be construed as a problem with Keller’s working practices as a part of team. 2) What important issues does Keller face? What are the most pressing problems he needs to address upon return to Athens? There are three important issues which Keller faces and they are as follows. First is to try and improve upon his shortcomings (as highlighted in his annual performance appraisal) vis-à  -vis the corporate staff and his line manager. There have been questions raised about his personality and attitude which include his management style and his ability to work well in a team. This may not be the most pressing problem but it could turn out to be a hard one to improve upon. This is because it might require fundamental changes to how Keller is used to work with and manage his staff. Second, is the issue of his working relationship with Mr. Antonov. Keller has been in-charge of all operational activities with minimal involvement from Antonov in the general management of the subsidiary. This has been noticed by the senior management in Germany and Keller has been advised to try and keep Antonov in the loop more than he is currently. The management recognizes the importance of Antonov’s maturity and experience of the local business and Keller has been asked to make such use of Antonov. Third, and this is the most pressing issue faced by Keller, is the apparent performance issue of Mr. Brodsky, the commercial director. Keller, over the course of two years of Brodsky being in the company, has noticed several issues with Brodsky’s performance. Keller feels that Brodsky is too slow to react to situations and he (Keller) has had to intervene many a times in order to prevent a potential disaster to the company. According to Keller, Brodsky’s â€Å"formal and distant† style is not suited to his job as a commercial director and moreover does not tune in well with Keller’s current and future commercial strategy of which an integral part is a close relationship with the company’s distributors. Keller does not see Bordsky as a leader of his sales force and considers his management style as more suited to a corporate staff based job than as a line manager. 3) What would you recommend to Keller to improve his effectiveness and chances of success? I think, Keller’s experience in relatively smaller company previously has influenced strongly his working and management style (as is hinted by his manager and accepted by himself). He tends to rely much on personal contacts with his staff and even his customers and probably dislikes corporate procedures (evident by his apparent errors in interpreting corporate policies) and standard reporting mechanisms (evident by his infrequent communication to his line management). This works for a smaller organization but in a larger, multi-billion dollar, company Keller must learn to respect the importance of formal and frequent communication both upwards to the senior management and encourage it from his direct reports. If Keller has to succeed and move further up he needs to develop this skill of taking stock of and manage a situation when it may not be possible to be directly involved in that. This I believe is crucial for Keller. Keller needs to learn the art of suitable delegation. Keller can tend to micro-manage situations and thus encroach upon his subordinates’ job responsibilities. Keller has defended this approach by pointing out that he uses the same approach with all his managers and none have raised a flag except Brodsky. I think this is something that Keller must address — he needs to delegate properly and thus build an atmosphere of long-lasting trust amongst his subordinates. His reports may only joke about it as of now (ref. the mock organization chart) but in future that may turn into something similar to what’s happening with Brodsky. Keller needs to control his natural inclination to be too hands-on and must try to hold back. A failure can teach a lesson more than constant lessons from a line manager. So depending on the situation it may be wise for Keller to let his report take a decision which in Keller’s opinion may not be the best one. About the current issues that Keller is facing with Brodsky, as Keller himself concedes, firing Brodsky may not be the best decision at this moment. Keller should try and find the middle path with Brodsky – use his strengths and make his perceived weaknesses unimportant and make him feel free enough to manage his department. I think Keller should somehow try and get positive feedback from staff (maybe through a round of â€Å"360 degree feedback†) to verify whether his analysis that Brodsky is not a â€Å"charismatic leader† is really true or unjustified. It could be that Brodsky’s staff may be too happy to have a leader who delegates rather than someone who is constantly involved in their day-to-day work. Keller, in the short term, should try to have an open mind about Brodsky’s abilities and try and involve him more in the setting of the overall commercial strategy of the company and let him have more freedom in managing his department. This would not only do well to his image as a team-worker but may also help in improving relations with Brodsky. Further, if Brodsky’s performance still does not change, Keller might be able to form a stronger case of Brodsky’s removal from the company.

Cameron Auto Parts Essay

Cameron Auto Parts was founded in 1965 in Canada by the Cameron family to seize opportunities created by the Auto Pact (APTA) of 1965 between the United States and Canada. The APTA allowed for tariff-free trade between the Big Three American automakers and parts suppliers and factories in both countries. The one caveat in the APTA to qualify for the zero-tariff trade was that companies must maintain assembly facilities on both sides of the border. Cameron Auto Parts specifically manufactured original equipment parts (OEM) such as small engine parts and accessories based upon design specs created by the Auto manufacturers and then sold these parts to the auto makers. Alex Cameron took the reins in 2001 and was immediately faced with a financial crisis. Sales in 2000 had dropped to $48 million and were only $18 million for the first six months of 2001. Cameron lost $2.5 million in 2000 and the same amount in the first six months of 2001. This decline was primarily due to declining auto sales of American cars and trucks and the increased presence of Japanese automakers. Market forces were driving the American firms to find ways to cut costs and modernize plants. Cameron used $10 million of its $12 million credit line to reinvest back into the firm by modernizing equipment and computer-assisted design and manufacturing systems. However, Cameron did not have its own design engineering team and relied on specs from the Big Three automakers for its products. This left Alex Cameron with an uneasy feeling that expansion into product design was essential for the long-term survival of the firm. In mid-2001, Cameron took the steps necessary to design and develop its own parts line. Cameron hired four design engineers and, by 2003, came up with a flexible coupling idea that would entice international buyers and not just the Big Three automakers. Cameron was then faced with the dilemma of how to market and sell the product. Projected sales of the new product in 2004 were between $35 and $40 million which was terrific but they weren’t sure they had the capacity to handle the production. They needed to decide if it was better to expand  current facilities, buy/ build a new facility, or license the fabrication of the product to outside companies. While on a vacation trip to Scotland, Alex went to check in on a local customer, McTaggart Supplies, Ltd, who convinced him that the flexible coupling product was in high demand in the U.K. and that more production was necessary to keep up with the demand. Alex decided at that meeting that Cameron would exclusively license the production of the flexible coupling to McTaggart in order to gain a stronger foothold in the U.K. for relatively little up-front investment. 1. Should Cameron have licensed McTaggart or continued to export? Cameron Auto Parts should license to McTaggart in the UK. It was one of Cameron’s key goals to penetrate foreign markets and the licensing agreement with McTaggart would be a swift way to begin executing this business strategy. McTaggart was in a superior position to penetrate the U.K. market due to a good cultural understanding and close proximity to potential clients. Once this business arrangement was proven successful, Cameron Auto Parts would be able to form similar agreements with other companies and expand to other foreign markets. McTaggart is an excellent licensee, as they are a reputable company in the U.K. with excellent credit, cost saving manufacturing practices, good market contacts, and 130 years of service in the business. They are also assuming most of the financial risk by paying Cameron Auto Parts the startup costs as well as a percentage of sales. Embarking on a licensing strategy would also eliminate the prohibitive cost of developing and maintaining a sales force in a foreign country that likely wouldn’t perform as well as a local company like McTaggart since customers had cultural ties and existing relationships with them. Additionally, orders can be filled more quickly as the product would be made locally reducing shipping costs and travel time. It was also a good decision for administrative and economic distance reasons. Since the product would be produced in the UK, it would not be subjected to excess cost of import duty, freight, insurance, or the value added tax. This would allow for the product to be sold at a more attractive price. Lastly, the value of the dollar fell during the original five year contract and the percentage of sales in pounds produced a higher dollar income for Cameron without changing the price of the products sold. The disadvantages of continuing to export are loss of  profits due to shipping costs, currency values, taxes and tariffs. The five year contract allows Cameron to evaluate the effectiveness of the licensing strategy and determine whether this is a profitable venture for the company. 2. Was Mc Taggart a good choice for licensee? Yes, McTaggart was a good choice as a licensee. They have all the tools necessary to successfully produce and sell the flexible couplings. †¢ McTaggart was already familiar with the product and had bought over U.S. $4,000 in the first four months in 2004. They had been able to sell the product as fast as it could be shipped and built a solid working relationship with Cameron as well as good credit. †¢ McTaggart has production experience that Cameron may benefit from and substantial room to increase production capacity. †¢ They have a solid reputation with great financial standing, excellent credit, and a capable sales staff to market and sell the product. †¢ They have manufacturing capacity and are willing to invest and develop the manufacturing capability to efficiently produce the flexible couplings. In addition, they have established a client base. 3. Was the royalty rate reasonable? A royalty rate is the money that must be paid to the owner of products (â€Å"the licensor†) from a buyer (â€Å"the licensee†). The amount of royalty fee is considered the fee for acquiring a patent or a copyright. In most businesses, a royalty fee applies when two or more companies have licensing agreements or sell the products in foreign countries. [i] In U.K., the normal rate of the royalty for licensing is around one and a half cent on each sale. However, Cameron Auto Parts was asking three per cent of sales from McTaggart. Although it was dropped down to 2 percent with a 5 year contract after negotiations, it is still higher than the normal rate. This seems reasonable as Mc Taggart will save a considerable amount of importation expense and will be able to sell the products at a lower rate than they can by importing. Cameron will have established an ongoing royalty income without incurring the overhead cost of production and sales expense. Cameron Auto Parts asks a higher royalty rate than normal rate because the company helps McTaggart choose equipment and provides training of operation  and production. Although McTaggart would like to pay these services separately, Cameron Auto Parts points out the benefits of getting services to keep higher royalty rate. With this five-year agreement, the royalty rate of two per cent is ensured in the first five years, but it will be down to one and a half per cent when the techniques of choosing equipment and operation have been acquired by McTaggart after five years. In conclusion, the royalty rate is reasonable for both parties involved. Cameron Auto Parts was able to enter the U.K. market expeditiously through McTaggart’s sales force, cut down on lead-times, save on duties, freight, and insurance and not be subject to currency fluctuations. McTaggart was able to sell a product already in demand, obtain training, focus on increasing sales and gain valuable insight into Cameron’s manufacturing process. Both companies would benefit from the shared knowledge they could provide each other, thus make the licensing agreement valuable for everyone involved. 4. What about the alternatives to licensing? The alternative to licensing would be to continue production and sell directly to McTaggart and other customers. This would involve dedicating a certain amount of production floor space to a market that is culturally and geographically distant and unpredictable. There is risk involved as the production space ties up cash flow and is not certain to produce profit. Travel expense would be incurred as company representatives would have to travel often to the U.K. in order to resolve issues or sell products. The sales side expense would be higher as well. More sales people would have to be employed to serve that region. They would either have to travel often or be based there and paid in pounds, which are currently stronger than the dollar. Instead of receiving a check from one contact that represents all sales for the whole area, Cameron would have to maintain relationships with various customers, which requires personalized attention to each and exposes him to having to perform collections and write off bad debt. Since unit production costs were estimated to decline 20% as annual sales climbed from $20 million to $100 million and Andy felt that the $20 million  mark was easily obtainable in the coming year, the continued value of exporting to Europe would have grown along with the European market. Looking at the pricing index, we can see that importing to Europe results in a cost of 113 to the importer. Since Cameron Auto Parts sell the flexible couplings at the same price to domestic and foreign distributors, licensing is an effective strategy to penetrate the European market while eliminating import and other logistical costs. Cameron Auto Parts would benefit most from a licensing agreement with McTaggart Supplies Ltd. Other options exist besides exporting or licensing such as a joint venture / wholly-owned subsidiary, selling through an agent, or selling through a distributor. Benefits to these strategies include reduced manufacturing cost, higher sales volume, and better market penetration and in some cases shared risk. The drawbacks to these methods include loss of price control, unpredictable sales volume, and loss of profits. [ii] Case Update Cameron Auto Parts enjoyed rapid growth during the 2004-2005. In 2004, the company undertook a major plant expansion for $10 million, adding 200,000 square feet to the company’s production capacity. Royalties from McTaggart during the first year of the licensing agreement were  £20,000; this grew to and  £100,000 the following year. High overall profitability left Cameron in a strong financial position in 2006. In 2006, Cameron was presented with an opportunity to purchase a 40 percent interest in Michelard & Cie., a family-owned distributor organization in France, which would allow Cameron to break into the continental European countries. Cameron agreed to the deal for $4 million and a royalty of 4 percent on sales of all flexible couplings. The deal enraged McTaggart, who had been selling flexible couplings in Europe and would now be competing with Michelard. Partly to appease McTaggart, Cameron agreed to a proposed joint venture in Australia. McTaggart would own 60 percent of the plant and be responsible for managing the venture.  According to McTaggart, local assembly in Australia could triple volume of current sales to around  £10 million. An investment of  £2 million could make around  £400,000 a year after Australian taxes while avoiding tariffs imposed on shipping finished products. This agreement would also position the firms to benefit from Australia’s free trade agreement with New Zealand. [iii] Cameron Auto Parts is very likely a pseudonym for Fernco, Inc., a flexible coupling manufacturer based outside of Detroit with a very similar history to that of Cameron Auto Parts. Fernco, Inc. is lead by Chris Cooper who, like Alex Cameron, took over the company from his father after graduating from Michigan business school. In addition to manufacturing facilities in Canada, the U.K., Australia and Germany, Fernco has expanded distribution to the E.U, New Zealand, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and China. [iv] ———————– [i] â€Å"Valuation Resource†Royalty Rates and License Fees.† Retrieved June 29, 2011 from < http://www.crucial-systems.com/dmbr/Mechanical_Royalties> â€Å"Mechanical Royalties.† Time. 05 December 2004. Retrieved June 29, 2011 from < http://www.crucial-systems.com/dmbr/Mechanical_Royalties> [ii] â€Å"Use These Top Five Strategies for Selling in International Markets.† Retrieved July 1, 2011 from [iii] Beamish, Paul and Crookell, Harold. â€Å"Cameron Auto Parts (B) – Revised.† Richard Ivey School of Business. University of Western Ontario. Jan 10, 2006. [iv] Ferno Company Website. Retrieved July 1, 2011 from . ———————– It is best NOT to start with a recommendation. I would first discuss the pros and cons of the issue on hand Cameron can simply do what it has been doing: Exporting. It is important that you should show licensing would be superior to exporting in order to advocate licensing These are good points. You realize the resources and capabilities of Cameron are limited. That is also a good point but that point supports the â€Å"exporting† option. There are other options as well: Joint Venture (JV) and foreign direct investment (FDI) are others to be considered. Take a look at the posted answers, especially, slide # 5 where a table lists pros and cons of each option in terms of various resource based factors. I must indicate my preference for such tabular presentations. They are simple, neat and to the point. All of your points are good. But they are one-sided. I am ALWAYS interested in a â€Å"balanced† analysis detailing not only points that support your perspective but also counter perspective. Please see the posted answers for such a perspective There is NO precise way of determining the royalty rate. Please see the posted answers for some guidance Not sure I understand this last point. Cameron is an Exporter. Why would they worry about import costs? Please take a look at the posted slides for this question. Good update. There are 2 things I suggest to improve your analysis: 1. Provide a balanced perspective. Nothing in this class is a clear pro or con. Every issue has both pros and cons. Both need to be studied carefully. 2. Incorporate other assigned readings into your analysis to provide evidence of learning. Some of the assigned readings could have easily been cited to support your viewpoint.

Egyptian and Mesoptamian Creation Story Comparison Essay

The Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations are similar yet differ in the way in which they were created. Civilizations were created years and years ago with many mythological characters and beliefs. Religion, gender, culture, gods, and society are impact the creation of these civilizations. In each of these civilizations, â€Å"we† come from the same place, the Water. In the Egyptian creation story, the first thing that existed was the ocean. The ocean then laid an egg that hatched, Ra, the sun. Once Ra the sun was born, then came gods and goddesses, atmosphere, the Earth, and so on. In the Mesopotamian creation story, everything began with the water. From the water, sea monsters and gods were born. The gods then began to create life. The water played a huge role on the creation of â€Å"us† and who â€Å"we† are. Both the Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations believe in Polytheism. The Egyptian creation story takes place with many different gods and goddesses. Ra, the sun, brought these gods forth. The gods were Shu and Geb while the goddesses were Tefnut and Nut. Each of these gods was then the creator of something. In Mesopotamian society gods were brought to the picture, which then were the creators of everything. Gender played a picture in each of these creation stories. The stories differ on the roles of Gender. In Egypt, they had respect for women and were treated identical to men. For example, Shu, a god, and Tefnut, a goddess together created the atmosphere. The Mesopotamian’s take on gender was that male and female were not equal. For example, Tiamat, the female creator, tries to take control. Her descendants unite against her, choosing one of their number – Marduk, the god of Babylon – to lead them. In conclusion, the Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations are very similar. This leads me to believe that all civilizations are related when it dates back to the year in which they were created. These creation stories only differed in one major category, which were gender roles. Overall, the relationship between Egyptian and Mesopotamian creation stories were very similar.

Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 23

Management - Essay Example Chief Executive Officers of Google, SAS, and Boston Consulting Group know that motivating their employee is crucial for individual performance, maintaining office culture, and group productivity. Therefore, the three companies have various elements that foster the motivation of their employees (FORTUNE, 2012). The CEO of Google acknowledges that their attitude is contagious. To motivate his employees, he includes his employees in making major decisions. The management listens to every person’s opinion, and this enables the company to come up with ideas that the management never thought of. Google motivates their employees, if they feel valued, appreciated, and needed. The Company therefore, hires employees possessing great leadership skills. SAS is regarded as one of the most workers-friendly institution. The company keeps his employees motivated by taking care of them to ensure they feel good and part of the company. The company offers free food to their employees. Additional ly, rather than bullying their employees, the company has a corporate culture challenging the conventional conception of tired phrase. Boston Consulting Group motivates their employees by creating the culture of agency and autonomy. The company has devised ways of making their employees to find joy in the company. Meaning that the company has given the workers that autonomy what to carry out and has helped them desire to master skill set and tasks. Additionally, the three companies has devised common ways of motivating their employees by encouraging them to voice their complaints, getting in touch their inner start-up and engaging on Fun Volunteer Assignment. Although there are various factors enhancing group cohesion among the workers, financial motivation is the most significant among Google, SAS, and Boston Consulting Group. The three companies pay a mean annual salary of $140000. Therefore, when the employees are well paid, they will replicate their

Taxation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 6

Taxation - Essay Example Rights conferred to a partner by a partnership interest are as follows: Basis refers to the asset or liability value based on the rules in accounting and taxation. Partnership comprises of two varieties of basis; outside and inside basis. Inside basis encompasses the tax records computed for each partner in the partnership. It is the sum of initial investment and profits, fewer losses and distributions. The outside basis refers to shares that cost the partner as outlined by the tax rules. It begins with sum of original investments and profits fewer losses and distributions. It depends on the worth of investment in partnership. The inside basis describes the assets in partnership for tax purposes while the outside basis depicts the capital account for taxation in partnership (Glover & Wasserman, 2003) A flow-through entity refers to a business entity, which passes income to the owners or to the investors. Such entities limit taxation by preventing double taxation, with the taxation of owners/ investors. Examples of flow-through entities include limited partnership, limited liability partnership, the S corporations, limited liability companies, income trusts, and general partnerships. Some of the advantages of the flow through entity over the regular corporation is that income, deductions or loses pass on to the shareholders on the pro-Rata basis commensuration with the ownership percentage. It reduces the chances of double taxation (Schlesinger, 2007). The generated income results from the work performed by the owners instead of the property owned by the corporation. On the other hand, regular corporations entail the shareholders risking their investment and the computation of income taxes results based on set procedures and records. The S corporations do not pay the federal income taxes. The losses and income distribute among the stakeholders who report the loss or income to personal income tax returns (Schlesinger, 2007). The common

Significance of the Dog in J.M. Coetzee's disgrace Essay

Significance of the Dog in J.M. Coetzee's disgrace - Essay Example This is Coetzee’s first book that deals explicitly with South Africa’s post apartheid scenario, that paints a cheerless picture and comforts no one, no matter to which race or nationality they belong. Coetzee’s primary theme in ‘Disgrace’ revolves around a man who is broken down and reduced to almost nothing, but finally searches and finds a small speck of redemption by way of his acceptance of the realities of life and death. The protagonist in the story is Professor David Lurie and Coetzee’s notion of life with its harsh realities and brutal tyranny being replaced by brutal anarchy are reflected through his protagonist David in South Africa, a place filled with social and political conflicts. Coetzee’s scintillating novel makes use of a metaphorical device such as the use of different animals and in particular dogs to bring out the developments of his characters. Dogs play a stylistic role in this novel as it is portrayed as being a m eans of protection for the Whites. During his childhood, Coetzee’s mother created a great impact on him where dogs were concerned. It is her influence which was a major contributing factor for Coetzee to use dogs as the defining factor in his novel ‘Disgrace’. His mother often reflected on her past life which included the â€Å"walks with the dogs†. ... David is a divorced, middle-aged scholar of Romantic poetry, who during the Mandela Era, became a victim of "the great rationalization". His university was replaced by a Technical University at Cape Town where he teaches lessons in â€Å"Communicative skills† that he finds rather useless and nonsensical. The dignity he has there, is short lived as he is caught having a relationship with one of his poetry students and is dismissed from the university. Coetzee describes him as â€Å"a mad old man sitting among the dogs singing to himself†; a man who invests his last savings into a pickup truck to pursue his work as a dog-undertaker. David further sinks in disgrace when he patronizes a prostitute and buys her gifts, but in the course of this relationship he becomes such a nonentity that she refuses to see him. He imagines her and her friends shuddering when they see him just as  "as one shudders at a cockroach in a washbasin in the middle of the night". David contemplate s asking his doctor to castrate him in the way one neuters a domestic animal. In Coetzee’s story this is the first reference made between human and animal existence. One of Coetzee’s striking techniques is to explore what it is to be human, which is deftly brought out through his characters by placing them in extreme and compelling situations. The protagonist David has to experience and endure physical torment and psychological abasement. He falls deep into disgrace and flees Cape Town to his daughter Lucy’s remote farm. Lucy hears his story and very matter- of- factly tells him, "This is the only life there is. Which we share with animals." This is another one of the comparisons made in this story between humans and

Etruscan Archaeology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Etruscan Archaeology - Essay Example right, particularly in how early its social structure was developed, the origins of the people who inhabited it, and the cultural and technological advancements they made during their independent existence. In recent times, interest in ancient Etruria has increased and the result of this archeological interest has led to greater understanding of the region’s diversity (Witcher 122). For understanding southern European history prior to the 8th century B.C. and beyond, a detailed survey of Etruscan archaeology is required. In general overview, the agriculture of the early- to mid-Etruscan civilization consisted of farms that contributed significantly to a central food and general supply of commodities like cereals, olives, figs, and wool (Barker 782). Before long, farming in the Etruscan state came under extensive regulation, when the economic system and society in general changed into one featuring a number of stratified and complex hierarchies. In addition to farms, roadways (for communication) and heavier equipment became necessary. These changes are clearly evident from the archaeological evidence uncovered at distinctively Etruscan sites (Witcher 102-5). In the case of Etruria, the compound of a new government and a new farming system created what came to be the growth of a system that emphasized difference between the elites and the public (Barker 783). Archaeological evidence regarding such transformations is especially scant, but telling examples like botanical residues at some sites paint a v ibrant picture. Economically, the archeology of the Etruscan civilization is appealing for its possible contribution to an understanding of a pre- or early-Roman economy. Subsistence farming, not at all unlike that seen in the medieval ages, took root in the context of growing state authority. Barker (1988) even claims that surplus animals not consumed for their commercial value were often sacrifice to legitimize â€Å"the authority of the elites amongst the peasantry

Was there a gap between the rhetoric of hope and democracy peddled by Essay

Was there a gap between the rhetoric of hope and democracy peddled by American institutions and leaders and the reality on the g - Essay Example As a function of understanding this unique period of American history, this brief essay will analyze this period with relation to the experience that different formerly marginalized groups had. The groups included within the analysis will include women, Native Americans, African Americans, and the various new immigrants that landed on American soil as a result of systemic and societal changes throughout Europe and the rest of the world.1 Finally, the essay will seek to answer the question of whether or not there was a gap with regards to the level of democracy that the system promised and what was actually realized within the masses of citizens of the republic. With regards to the experience that post-Reconstruction brought to women, this was a period in which the emancipation and ultimate freedom that the former slaves had realized served to entice the women’s suffrage movement to begin to stir.2 The result of this stir was also due to the fact that many former anti-slavery a dvocates were women and it was realized that defined and sustained political action by such groups could make a discernable and lasting impact on the future of politics within the nation. As a function of this, suffragists and other individual issue groups began to ply the political channels in the United States. Although it took many decades for this movement to eventually be heard, the realization of political power that was born from the end of slavery served to embolden this group of shareholders to demand a more active and integrative political process within the nation. Similarly, due to the changes that the end of slavery had afforded to recently freed African Americans, there were many positive and negative externalities that soon existed for this demographic. Firstly, with regards to the positive changes, an amendment to the Constitution made it possible for black men to have a voice in the way that the nation grew and expanded. This of course helped to provide a previously disenfranchised group of individuals with a small portion of the political power that they should have held all along. Sadly, this and the end to slavery were some of the only positive factors that integrated themselves with the African American experience in the Post-Reconstruction era. The fact of the matter was that in an era in which the civil rights of African Americans should have flourished the most, a litany of Jim Crow laws popped up all over the country which practically relegated these individuals to a form of second class citizenship. Unable to eat, drink, or even wait in the same waiting rooms as whites, African Americans saw many of the hopes and dreams of equality that they had held after the conclusion of the Civil War and the beginning of the Reconstruction fade into something of an unrealistic dream.3 Similarly, with regards to the employment outlook and opportunity that existed for these recently freed slaves; this too was a difficult if not impossible. Sharecrop ping came to represent a new form of enslavement whereby the landed aristocracy was able to subjugate the lower classes into a type of generational and perpetual servitude.4 With regards to Native Americans, their plight was perhaps

Biometric Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Biometric - Research Paper Example However, research has shown that the mismatched identification in a whispered speech is due to the phonemes hence providing an unvoiced consonant will prevent this mismatched in whispered identification. Key Words- Voice, Phoneme, Biometric Authentication I. RESEACH QUESTION/PROPOSAL A feature information of enrolled person’s biometric information in biometric authentication is normally enrolled as templates that are stored by secure databases and anti-tampered devices. However, the disadvantage is that biometric information is irrecoverable once compromised. Therefore, there is need to give such information special attention in order to ensure they are safely stored. Also due to increased internet penetration and access by many people has raised a need for the implementation of online biometric authentication i.e. a uniform, secure and reliable method of biometric authentication. Therefore, the research proposal in this case is to identify alternatives for the password-based authentication used in most smart devices today. This kind of authentication is vulnerable and can be compromised hence a proposal to focus and introduce better authentication ways i.e. biometric that uses one’s unique biological and psychological features. ... Mobile devices are being stolen daily, which puts in danger important information that had been stored before. [1]. Therefore, a user will hope that his/her password is strong enough not to be decoded. Biometric authentication is giving a natural alternative to passwords. The wide variety of input sensors that mobile devices include nowadays like microphones, camera, PS, touch screens helps with the implementation of biometric authentication. Businesses are requiring an easy to use but secure authentication for their mobile devices in their corporations as well users around the world. Many of the biometric authentications are strong, but others have their limitations. [2] This paper will discuss and will show an improvement in the authentication of voice recognition. I. BACKGROUND Biometric can be classified in to two major categories based on their characteristics i.e. Behavioral Biometric and Physiological Biometric. Behavioral biometric is the study of the differences in how peopl e do things while physiological biometric is the study of physical uniqueness of individual, which is unlikely to change very easily [3]. A. Importance of Voice Authentication Most of the biometric authentications works with sophisticated equipment that requires the physical presence of the person. For example, Retina biometric authentication needs a camera; which are contained in most smartphones. TABLE 1 PHYSIOLOGICAL BIOMETRIC AND BEHAVIOR BIOMETRIC Physiological Biometric Behavioral Biometric Voice Scan Iris Scan Finger Print DNA Matching Facial Scan Retina Scan Hand Scan Keystroke Scan Signature Scan Gait Recognition However, a Charge Coupled Device (CCD) which is complement with ANSI/IESNA RP-27.1-96 and IEC 60825-1 standards for radiation have

Auditing Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 2

Auditing - Assignment Example sely, the primary purpose of the accounting framework is to ensure that the users of financial information are provided with user-friendly information. This assignment seeks to present the concept of the audit, audit risk, and substantive audit procedures based on the case of Applied Graphene Materials PLC. Based on the company’s financial statements, first, three areas of heightened audit risk will be identified, and a quantitative analysis provided. Second, in relation to one of the identified areas in the first part, five substantive audit tests will be identified together their significance (Foster & Greenawalt 1995, pp. 1-5). The company analysis can take two approaches. That is the providers of funds and the controllers of the funds. Funds are provided by stakeholders such as shareholders, creditors, and other entities. The categories of stakeholders that are responsible for the management of funds are directors and managers. From the statement, the providers of funds are different from funds managers. Therefore, fund providers require a report on how funds are being managed over a period, usually one year. However, the information contained in the financial statement may lack credibility for the following reasons: the information may contain errors; it may not disclose any fraudulent act; the information may be inadvertently or deliberately misleading; and the information may not disclose all the material information. It is a daunting task to prepare financial reports, especially for large companies with several subsidiaries that adopt different accounting practices. The process of consolidating the financial information of large companies such as Applied Graphene Materials PLC creates a breeding ground for multiple errors, fraud, and omissions. It is, therefore, the responsibility of the auditor to verify whether the company’s financial statements are free of error, fraud or material misstatement. That is, whether the information presents a true and

Gullivers Travels Essay Example for Free

Gullivers Travels Essay When Blackadder and Prince George are faced with dilemma of bribing an MP to vote in the princes favour they provide us with a description of a member of parliament called Sir Talbot Buxomly who is corrupt, cruel, ineffectual and open to bribes. According to Blackadder he is a perfect candidate to become a High Court Judge and even Prince George thinks he is a little over qualified. Blackadder: Sir Talbot has the worst attendance record of any Member of Parliament but if we can get him to support us, were safe hes a violent, bigoted, mindless old fool The use of satire here suggests that the high court judge isnt necessarily as honest as you would expect a person with that much power to be. A comparison with this is Swifts description of the Emperor in chapter two. He describes how he is expensively dressed. He had on his head a light helmet of gold, adorned with jewels, and a plume on the crest. Swift compares him to the pompons King George the first. He was king of England but was brought over from Germany and did not speak the language. When the Emperor speaks at Gulliver he cannot understand a word and this is his bribe at the king. Like Sir Talbot Buxomly, the Emperor is useless and incompetent. When it comes to the actual election, Blackadder confesses that they will cheat in order to win votes. He is not alone in this outlook as one of his opponents, Pitt the Even Younger confesses what he did in order to be a decent politician bad mouthed the opposition. Bribed the newspapers. Threatened to torture the public if his party lost. Once again driving home the point that the politicians will do anything within their power to get a seat in parliament. You can tell that cheating is certainly not beneath them when Pitt the Even Younger told what was a decent politician is in his opinion. I fail to see what more a decent politician could have done Similar examples of satire, which criticise politics and the government are also found in Gullivers Travels. In Lilliput anybody who jumps over the highest rope gets a position in court and how candidates jump over and creep under a stick held at various heights win the silken threads which show the kings favourite. Just like in Blackadder getting a job in the court in lilliput is not to down how good you would be at the job but is down to how much you can creep, crawl and pander to the king. Whoever performs his part with the most agility and hold out the largest in creeping and crawling, is rewarded

Treatment of Native Americans Essay Example for Free

Treatment of Native Americans Essay From the very beginning of American history, settlers have poorly treated the Native Americans. As some people know, â€Å"poorly† is an understatement. The treatment of the indigenous people was horrible during the 1800s from being forced to move west, having laws made against them by the government, and mass murder, even though that isn’t what our history books like to tell us today. In 1804, fur trading was established with the Oglala and became a big part of their life. Then, the Oglala and Lakota tribes decided to expand their control and influences west toward the Big Horn mountains. Then, on March 26, the United States government forced the Native Americans to move west past the Mississippi River. This meant that they would have to leave everything they had to move to a reservation where they would have to start all over again. They only had a certain amount of time to move cooperatively but when that time was up, they would be moved forcefully. If the Native Americans did not agree to move, then they were killed. Many laws and acts were passed against the native American people. In 1833, a law was made that no Native American to reside in the state of Florida, so, yet again, the indigenous people of our country were forced to drop everything thing they had to go live in a reservation in the west to start all over again. Also, in 1834, the Indian Intercourse Act was passed. The Indian Intercourse Act said that Congress created Indian Territory in the west that included the land area in all of present-day Kansas, most of Oklahoma, and parts of what later became Nebraska, Colorado, and Wyoming. The area was set aside for Indians who would be removed from their ancestral lands which, in turn, would be settled by non-Indians. The area steadily decreased in size until the 1870s when Indian Territory had been reduced to what is now Oklahoma, excluding the panhandle. Along with all of the laws and forced movement of Native Americans, there were also many battles that killed a lot of the indigenous people. In 1835 to 1842 was the Seminole War, the second and most terrible of three wars between the US government and the Seminole people was also one of the longest and most expensive wars in which the US army was ever engaged. Thousands of troops were sent, 1,500 men died, and between 40-60 million dollars were spent to force most of the Seminole to move to Indian Territory more than the entire US governments budget for Indian Removal. Another fight between settlers and Native Americans was in 1855. The Ash Hollow massacre was a pretty dumb battle when you think about it. Colonel William Harney uses 1,300 soldiers to massacre an entire Brulà © village in retribution for the killing of 30 soldiers, who were killed in retribution for the killing of the Brulà © chief, Conquering Bear, in a dispute over a cow. Settlers used any excuse they could think of to humiliate and kill as many Native Americans as they could. In conclusion, the treatment of Native Americans in our country was brutal. We are all told that a human is a human and everyone is equal. Well, clearly, people in the 1800s did not think so. They attacked anyone that was different in order to get ahead, including our indigenous people.

The Increasing Popularity Of Internet Marketing Essay

The Increasing Popularity Of Internet Marketing Essay With the increasing popularity of internet, we see that online shopping is penetrating in the lives of people. It is so, because of the wide distribution and rapid progress of computer use and internet, it has offers consumers not only access to an endless amount of information but also an opportunity of making purchase at home. However, due to this change, online shopping has been regarded as very popular for consumers and it has become an accepted way of purchasing different types of goods and products. Online shopping also known as internet shopping, e- shopping, e- commerce, and online purchasing is viewed as a process where consumers buy directly from a seller without any intermediary throughout the net. Thus, in a more general sense, consumers can stay at their own leisure or at their own comfort of their house and browse through the internet to buy goods or products according to their desires or specifications anywhere in the world. Moreover, changes in the lifestyles are pushing consumers to go for online shopping. Instead of spending times and doing shopping activities in a retail stores, consumers are finding it easier and pleasant to shop online at any time or during festival season. People are now buying many types of goods and services as well, on the internet. Thus, according to a survey it has been found that due to the growing trend of online shopping, many companies are finding it advantageous to join the bandwagon and offers their consumers to shop online, otherwise they could have incurred losses if only they would concentrated on retail store. Further to that, in this new age, technology is actually the main motive that is in terms of e-commerce which has become an integral part for most youngsters. Nowadays, it is very common especially for youngsters to go online and buy their desires needs and wants. Moreover, in todayà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s time, there are apps (short for application) i.e. software that you buy from your preferred online store, which has different functions that has makes life more easier or simply for entertainment and which has mostly attract the youngsters due to its various purpose that is; gaming, variety of news and information, social networking, sports news, weather forecasting and amongst others. Thus, with all these facilities, people are benefitting enormously. At the present time where people have smartphones, IPhone, android and amongst others they are always connected with Internet and at any point in time they can buy anything that they want. When you log onto your iPhone or android phone, y ou get updates about new games and new apps. Some free, some try and buy. With this temptation, no one actually can resist and 95% eventually end up buying something. Although, we see that some companies are also making online shopping easier and more interesting by giving some facilities such as to try and then buy. Thus, through this, people are finding it relatively easier and are adopting it. However, due to this new trend, we see that the behavior of consumers are changing as well as their attitudes, that is by having all this facilities, they are engaging more upon that. Hence, this study will try to investigate the internet usage pattern and also the attitude of internet users toward online shopping. It will also examine to which extent are the consumers being influenced toward online shopping and also the benefit and drawbacks associated to it. Further to that, this research will also attempt to provide a holistic view of those shoppers and online shoppers. Their demographics, psychographics, shopping experience and level of satisfaction and dissatisfaction with online shopping will also be analyzed in details. 1.1 Motivation My motivation in conducting this study is simply because nowadays, with the rapid change in the technological advances, it has revolutionaries the way people do their shopping. In this era, online shopping has created a unique stand and thus become very popular for everyone whether youngsters or adults. Everyone keeps an interest to that. Moreover, internet has been introduced in Mauritius since 1996 and the number of people connecting to internet is constantly increasing. Thus, undoubtedly online shopping is a new feature that has been recently created. Definitely, online shopping has a double side coin which consists of some benefit and drawbacks as well. Since it is a relatively new occurrence, this has encouraged me more on doing this typical survey. In addition to that, products such as laptop, camera, mobile phone, all the technological gadgets, cloths, shoes and amongst others are the main stuff for the online shoppers. There are a number of websites such as amazon, e-bay and many others that provide consumers a wide choice of products so that they can make their purchase. Nevertheless, these websites also provides guarantee to their product, thus as a result it gives assurance to their consumers. Through its risky yet people like to do online shopping. Further to that, it is believe that nowadays, online shopping has become a lifestyle as everyone finds it more interesting and they are making online shopping some part of their life. Thus, I was motivated to do this survey as it is something new and people are finding adaptable and interesting. 1.2 Background Due to the invention of computer use and internet, it has created a paradigm shift of the traditional way people shop. People used to go to market, retails stores to purchase the products but nowadays, we see that consumers is no longer bounded by any opening or closing hours nor by any specific location. Meaning that at any time and place, he can purchase products and services as well. Hence, indeed internet has become a medium for communication and information exchange which has become very essential and present in everyday life. Long ago, people used to go to market, retails stores to find and make a purchase of the products they required. Normally, they had to travel to go to these shops. Before buying a particular product goods, they would choose their products very carefully and once they were sure about the products, they would buy it. Thus, these were the traditional shopping method but nowadays, it is not the only shopping method that exists. The rapid growth of internet has brought another way of making purchase that is online. Customers search on the internet for products according to their specific needs. Today, internet is considered as a mass medium as it provides consumers with purchase characteristics that is in term of convenience. It provides consumers the ability to view and purchase product at any time and also to visualize their needs of the products. In addition to that, there are already a number of websites created for selling products such as amazon, eBay and amongst others. In this environment of customer choice, people have the ability to search for a range of products on the internet and that too with a variety of better choices and experienced as compared with traditional retail stores. They have also given the opportunity to the same people to sell their items online. In the study of Oppenheim and ward (2006), he explained that earlier people use to shop on the internet because of the price but now it has been converted into convenience. Thus the current primary reason for people to shop online is just because of convenience. Hence, online shopping is just a process where consumers decide to shop on the internet. Moreover, many previous papers have analyzed this concept of online shopping in respect of consumerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s attitudes and behavior for example, Hunt (2007) has discuses about the various methods of online shopping and Wolfinger has studied the situation involves in online shopping and many others . In present times, it has become more easier, it is so as people who have IPhone, Android, Smartphone or tablets can easily have access to internet easily and then whenever, they want to shop they can shop at anytime and anywhere. Due to the progression of technology, a software called apps have been created which give many facility in various ways. Thus, through all these, online shopping is becoming more accessible to all. We even see that in other countries, some companies are emphasing more in online shopping. They are giving option of trying before buying, thus this is a newly designed features that been created to attract more consumers. Thus to conclude, due to the improvement of technology, it has given more facilities to consumers to shop online and to experience new things. A as a result, internet has developed a highly competitive market, where competition over the consumers is fierce. Objectives of the project To gain an insight about the profile of current internet users. To examine the factors which encourage and discourage consumer from purchasing online. To identify the key factors which influence the Mauritian online shopping behavior. To investigate the level of consumerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s attitude toward online shopping. To determine how socio-demographic affect consumer attitude toward online shopping. Research questions; What are the factors that influence decisions on whether to purchase online or at physical store? What are the advantage and disadvantage of purchasing online or at the physical store? How do these factors influence the consumer to purchase online? What are the mode of payment and delivery of goods being done when purchasing online? What is the level of consumerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s attitude toward online shopping? What is the relative impact of socio demographic and attitude in online shopping and purchasing behavior? Layout of the project Chapter 2; literature review This chapter will presents a critical summary of all previous researches that has been done on attitude and behavior of people toward online shopping. It is divided into many sections which will be further elaborated. Chapter 3; research methodology It will describe the research process that has been used to carry out for this study. The research design and sampling plan will be further described. The sources of data both primary and secondary sources will be used and the questionnaire design will also be presented. Chapter 4; analysis and findings of the study Chapter 4 will deals with the analysis of data collected. This analysis has been in line with the objectives and therefore the finding will be extracted from this analysis and which will be presented in a way that would be easily understood. Chapter 5; recommendation and conclusion It will present the conclusion that has been drawn from the analysis of the research. Further scope for the research and some implication also will be discussed. Summary Since the rapid development of the internet, online shopping has become a new and widely used medium. Despite the fact it is relatively a new thing peoples especially youngsters always keeps an interest to that ant that also do not have any problem using this medium. Thus, I wanted to have a clear information about the current usage pattern on online shopping and also about the benefit and risk associated to online shopping. What actually I want in this research is understand the consumers and what influence them toward online shopping and also their attitude and behavior toward this new occurrence of technology. This is what I want to accomplish with this research.

Raskolnikovs Crimes Essay -- Literary Analysis Crime Punishment

In every age we live, there is a constant struggle between finding a cure to our neurosis with the advent of urbanization and finding qualities in nature that supersede our abilities in enhancing modern man. With that kind of chaos come various forms of behaviors and actions, most of which stem to arguments of good versus evil. Dostoevsky insists that men have the choice between good and evil every moment of their lives; no matter the circumstance, they have the choice between moral and immoral. Crime and Punishment is a story of Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov’s struggle with the ideologies of his time. The young and impoverished law student is torn between unifying and nihilistic cultures afflicting nineteenth-century tsarist Russia. Through a journey of crime, it becomes clear to Raskolnikov that his ultimate failure was caused by his transgression in murdering cold-heartedly, attempting to prove his self-worth by crossing the law. As Raskolnikov’s guilt overwhel ms him and becomes unbearable, his only solace is confession to the crime. Serving his prison term in Siberia, Raskolnikov comes to the realization that reason cannot beat the human conscience. Motive is central to any crime committed. When put on trial, a prosecutor must first prove that the accused acted in the crime, and then he/she must prove the criminal possessed a â€Å"guilty mind.† There is neither doubt nor denial that Raskolnikov murdered the old pawnbroker and her half-sister. As he was approaching the old woman’s house, Raskolnikov protested to himself, â€Å"Can it be, can it be, that I will really take an axe, that I will strike her on the head, split her skull open . . . that I will tread in the sticky warm blood, break the lock, steal and tremble; hide... ...roit: Gale Research Company, 1984. 69. Print. Hackett, Francis. â€Å"Crime and Punishment.† Horizons: A Book of Criticism. New York: B. W. Huebsh, 1918. 178-185. Rpt. in Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Laurie Lanzen Harris and Sheila Fitzgerald. Vol. 7. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1984. 74-75. Print. Jones, Malcolm V. Dostoyevsky: The Novel of Discord. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, Inc., 1976. Print. Miller, Robin Feuer. Critical Essays on Dostoevsky. Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1986. Print Strakhov, N. â€Å"The Nihilists and Raskolnikov’s New Idea.† â€Å"Crime and Punishment† by Feodor Dostoevsky: A Norton Critical Edition †¦ Essays in Criticism. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1975. 485-487. Rpt. in Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Laurie Lanzen Harris and Sheila Fitzgerald. Vol. 7. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1984. 69-70. Print.

Genes Coming of Age in A Separate Peace Essay -- Separate Peace Essay

Gene's Coming of Age in A Separate Peace      Ã‚  Ã‚   The novel, A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, is the coming of age story of Gene Forrester. This novel is a flashback to the year 1943, when Gene is attending Devon School during his senior year and the summer before it. "Gene's youth and inexperience make him ill-equipped to deal with situations that require maturity" (Overview: A Separate Peace 2). However, Gene is a follower of Finny and therefore gains experiences that provoke his development into adulthood. Some of these experiences include: breaking Finny's leg, training for the 1944 Olympics, and killing Finny. Through these three experiences Gene is forced to grow out of his childish-self and become a man.    Gene jounces a limb of the tree he and Finny were standing on, causing Finny to fall and break his leg. Gene's jealousy of Finny's perfection causes him to have childish feelings of resentment and hatred. After Finny's leg was broken, Gene realized "that there never was and never could have been any rivalry between" (Knowles 51) him and Finny. Gene looked at himself and became conscious of what a terrible, self-absorbed friend he had been. Understanding there was no competition caused him to discard the majority of his feelings of jealousy. Getting rid of these feelings made him grow-up because he was no longer spending countless hours believing a childish game was being played between Finny and him. Gene began to understand more of Finny's goodness and love towards all, making him strive to be more like Finny.    When Finny trains Gene for the 1944 Olympics, Gene becomes more mature. Through Finny's coaching of Gene, Gene acquires many characteristics of the already grown-up Fi... ... age of Gene Forrester. Because Finny causes Gene to grow up, we are able to realize that one must grow up to move on in life. In that process of growing up, several people impact your life. This novel shows us how our identity is basically created by those who are present in our lives; however we must not measure our abilities against another person (Overview: A Separate Peace 2). We are shown how the impact of one person can make a great difference. The goodness in people is what one should always take away from a relationship. This is shown in the relationship between Gene and Finny. The experiences Finny gives Gene cause him to grow up and become a better person because of them.    Sources Bryant, Hallman. A Separate Peace: the War Within. Boston: G.K. Hall & Co, 1990. Knowles, John. A Separate Peace. New York: Macmillan, 1961.      

Bill Clinton :: Essays Papers

Bill Clinton Born on Aug. 19, 1946, in Hope, Ark., William (Bill) Jefferson Blythe IV grew up in a troubled home. His father had died in an automobile accident three months before his son's birth, and his mother later was forced to leave her two-year-old son with his grandparents when she moved to New Orleans to pursue her nursing studies. The family settled in Hot Springs, Ark., after his mother married Roger Clinton, whose surname Bill later adopted. As a young man, Bill was determined to succeed and frequently earned academic honors, including selection as a delegate to the American Legion Boy's Nation program in Washington, D.C., where the 16-year-old Clinton met Pres. John F. Kennedy and determined to embark on a political career. Attending Georgetown University to study international affairs, Clinton served as an intern for Sen. J. William Fulbright of Arkansas before receiving his B.S. degree in 1968. After winning a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford University, Clinton returned to the United States to enroll at Yale Law School. In 1972 he helped to manage presidential candidate George McGovern's Texas campaign. After graduating from law school in 1973, Clinton returned to Arkansas to teach and to plan his political career. On Oct. 11, 1975, he married Hillary Rodham, a fellow law student he had met at Yale. After 12 years of Republican control of the presidency, Clinton came to office amid high expectations for fundamental policy change. Early in his administration he reversed a number of Republican policies. He ended the federal prohibition on the use of fetal tissue for medical research, repealed rules restricting abortion counseling in federally funded health clinics, and used his appointment power to fulfill a promise to place many women and minorities in prominent government positions. Although backed by a Congress controlled by the Democratic party, Clinton found it difficult to change the course of national priorities during his first two years in office. Early in his administration several of his appointees encountered congressional disapproval. His proposal to end the ban on homosexuals in the military met with widespread opposition from Congress, the military, and the public and had to be altered substantially. Clinton had promised to reverse the Bush policy of returning Haitian refugees to their homeland, but he eventually decided to continue implementing his predecessor's plan. The failure to enact comprehensive health-care reform proved to be a major setback for Clinton.

Integrating Traditional Medicine with Western Medicine

Name: Anthony OLUSOLA Course Title:Medical Anthropology Topic:Traditional and Bio-Medical Practice: Integrating traditional and modern systems in the Nigerian health care delivery. Research Question: To what extent, if any, has traditional medicine in comparison to Bio-Medical practice, been incorporated to the health care delivery systems in Nigeria and how much promotion is given to the significance and efficacy of the practice of traditional medicine in curing same illness? Abstract:The practice of traditional medicine among the people of Nigeria in the Western region of Africa transcends the advent of Bio-Medicine and occupies a prominent position in the delivery of health care. Majority of the rural dwellers as well as substantial proportion of the urban dwellers rely on traditional medicine for solutions to illness and healing. A significant number of Nigerians living abroad rely strongly on the efficacy of traditional herbs for medical treatment, regardless of their level of e ducation and cost of transporting such herbal medicine to their country of residence.However, several successive governments in Nigeria have continued to neglect the indigenous health care methods in their health policy. This paper examines the relevance of traditional medicine and its contributions to health care delivery systems in Nigeria, and the rate at which people opt for alternative medical interventions as brought about by the inaccessibility of modern medicine as well as the financial implications. Against these backdrops, this paper proposes considerable recognition for traditional medical practice and its possible integration into the nation’s health care delivery system. Medical system in Nigeria: An examinationWhereas health is the most precious of all things and it is the foundation of all happiness, traditional medicine, in response to the health needs of the people, developed as an integral part of the various communities in Nigeria and its practice dates bac k in time, long before the advent of modern technology and inventions. It in fact, plays a huge role in providing a sense of identity and spirituality to the people of Nigeria. Historically, traditional medicine reflects the social-religious structures of the indigenous societies from which it emerges, along with the values, beliefs, behaviours and practices developed over the years.The administration of traditional medicine is conducted by a traditional healer or elder, often regarded as native doctors, who took care of their patients using extracts of plants, animals and mineral substances as well as other methods based on the social, cultural and religious beliefs of the community. Such person is also considered to be well grounded in the prevailing knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs in the community about physical, mental and social well-being and the cause of diseases and disabilities (WHO, 1976).The medical services provided by this individual is widely acceptable among the peo ple both in the rural and the urban areas. According to World Health Organization, traditional medicine is the totality of knowledge and practices, whether explicable or not, used in diagnosing, preventing or eliminating a physical, mental or social dis-equilibrium and which rely exclusively on past experiences and observations handed down from generation to generation, whether verbally or in writing (WHO,1976).With this definition, it can be argued that the practice of traditional knowledge is rooted in the in-depth wisdom and versatility of the administrator not only on the causality of diseases, but also the need for a healthy community without necessarily draining the people of their finances thus making health care accessible and affordable. However, despite the importance of traditional medicine, it has incredibly suffered neglect and non-recognition by the nation’s health developing and planning agencies.More attention is continually drawn to the modern medical system with little or no concern for the accessibility of this system as well and its affordability. The sustainability of an average family in Nigeria is valued at less than 5 dollars a day. Notwithstanding the government’s preposition on the establishment of a health care system that is promotive, protective, preventive, restorative and rehabilitative to every citizen of the country within the available resources so that individuals and communities are assured of productivity, social well-being nd enjoyment of living (F. M. H. 1988), the system, as is currently practiced is very inadequate in comparison to the Nigerian growing population and slow-paced economic development. According to the health manpower statistics, the ratio of the registered medical doctors as against the population’s need is put at 1:1,100 with modern medical facilities being administered in mega cities and little or none made available at the rural areas.As a result of lack of supervision or adequate provision for the essential needs of medical practitioners, doctors often times are faced with the conscientious decision to commute to the rural areas to administer Medicare on out-of-pocket expenses, which after a while becomes impossible to carry on. Thus the people in the rural area are left in the care of the traditional healer, who eventually cure their diseases with less charges than the bio-medical practice thereby saving the patients some money.The news of the efficacy of the traditional medical administration soon spreads to the urban cities and an inflow of travelers is experienced for consultation and medical attention. In certain medical cases, modern medical practitioners would refer a particular patient with illness considered incurable using modern medications to traditional healers thus further reaffirming the extent to which traditional medicine constitute important source of medical care for many people regardless of their wealth or level of education.Unfortunatel y, the effect of globalization and capitalist theory has eaten deep into the Nigerian government such that the individual gains or profits of the policy makers and that of those at the corridor of power is rated high and considered most important than the health and healing of the citizens. Much ado is made on the need for the nation to catch up with modern world in science and technology but the nation’s economy, as it is presently, cannot readily meet the high cost of modern health care and the advanced technology.

Preliminary Ruling under Article Essay

Question 1. EC legislation and the national legislation of the Member States were integrated by the European Community Treaties. As such the national courts act in accordance with Community law and refer cases to the European Court of Justice. National judges play a key role in implementing Community law in their Member States. The preliminary reference system thus enables the national courts to comply with Community law and maintain cooperation with the European Court of Justice. Under this system the national courts refer cases for a preliminary ruling to the ECJ, in accordance with the provisions of Article 234 EC . Article 234 EC contains the jurisdictional requirements for a preliminary reference. First, the referring institution has to be a court or tribunal of a Member State. Second, the referral should be in respect of Community law’s validity or interpretation and finally, the referring court or tribunal should determine whether at all there is a need to deliver a judgment, by the ECJ. In Bosman it was opined by the Advocate General Lenz that the ECJ can refuse to consider a preliminary ruling request, if such a request apparently bears no relation to the main action . The European Court of Justice is an autonomous body that is independent of any Member State or institution of the European Union. The major function of the ECJ is to interpret the Community Treaties and Community law in accordance with the spirit of the EU, and to implement the EC law, throughout the EU. Therefore, the ECJ shoulders the responsibility of uniformly applying the EC law in all Member States. It constitutes the judicial pillar of the EU . While hearing cases, if a conflict arises between the national legislation and the EC law, with regard to the application of the Community law; the national courts should not declare the EC law to be inapplicable. It is the duty of the ECJ to resolve such situations through its case law. Article 234 EC contains the procedure to be adopted when national courts refer cases to the ECJ for a preliminary ruling. A wide range of jurisdictional requirements have to be met by the ECJ in order to give a preliminary ruling. However, the ECJ can refuse to entertain a preliminary reference if it is satisfied that Community law is not invoked in these referred cases . In the Meilicke case, the issue was the right of shareholders to obtain information from the company management, as per the provisions of Directive 77/91/EEC. The Directive requires certain safeguards to be implemented by the Member States, so as to protect the interests of shareholders and others. The Member States have to act in accordance with the second paragraph of Article 58 of the EC Treaty. The national court referred the case to the ECJ on the compatibility of the German Aktiengesetz with the Directive with regard to the process of forming public limited liability companies, their maintenance and changes in their share capital . The national court was required to interpret these safeguards in accordance with the Second Directive. The ECJ keenly looked into the facts of the case. Its objective was to determine whether the German legislation, in the context of treating certain cash contribution preceded or followed by the company’s transactions of payment of amounts to shareholders, so as to offset the debts of the company to the shareholders or subscribers, violated Community law. The national court had held that Community law had been violated, because these amounts had been in the form of disguised contributions in kind . However, the ECJ refused to respond to the referral, as it felt that it would be exceeding the scope of its jurisdiction . The underlying principle involved is that the national courts have to refer novel and subtle questions, regarding the application and interpretation of EC law, while making a reference for a preliminary ruling. Subsequently, the ECJ would develop new case law, which would serve as a guideline to national judges and other legal professionals in the EU. National courts are expected to develop a pan European perspective and thereby contribute to the integrity of the Union. As such the ECJ does not compel the national courts to refer cases for a preliminary hearing. Though, the ECJ cannot force national courts to submit cases for preliminary reference, Article 234 EC imposes such a requirement in some cases. In some other cases it requires national courts to directly refer the cases to the ECJ by suspending the cases in the first instance itself . Article 234 EC differentiates between lower courts and national courts of last instance. The lower national courts have discretion, whether to make a reference or not. The national courts of last instance are obliged to refer cases for preliminary reference, if the interpretation of Community law was such that referral was warranted. Most of these cases originate in the lower national courts. Hence, they possess the discretion to refer the cases to the ECJ. The courts of last instance are under an obligation to make such a reference, however, they possess some discretion in this matter and this has been specified in Article 7 EC . If a national judge has to deal with cases in which the validity and applicability of the EC law is challenged, or if the application of EC law is argued to be illegal; then the national judge is under an obligation to make a referral to the ECJ for a preliminary reference. However, national judges are not competent to declare EC law invalid or unlawful. This is because, if a provision of EC law were to be declared as unlawful, then its application would have to be declared invalid in the entire EU. Therefore, it is unacceptable to declare a provision of the EC law invalid in a particular Member State; while it is valid in other Member States, without any dispute or conflict with national legislation . In the Foto – Frost case, the ECJ held that the national courts are under an obligation to refer questions regarding the applicability and validity of EC law to it. The ECJ held that national courts could only consider the applicability and legality of Community legislation. A national court cannot declare that a piece of Community legislation is invalid. Hence it only the ECJ that can invalidate Community legislation or an act of an EC institution . In Gaston Schul Douane-expediteur and International Air Transport Association the ECJ reiterated that the national courts were under an obligation to seek a preliminary reference from it. In Gaston, ECJ ignored the subject matter of the case and only considered the preliminary reference made by the national court. Afterwards, the ECJ held that the referral had been incorrect, because in an earlier decision on a similar subject, it had given the same decision, due to the fact that a specific piece of EU legislation would be declared invalid. Question 2 [a] The Employment Tribunals are competent to refer cases, under Article 234 EC, to the ECJ, whenever a clarification is needed regarding an EC Directive. This is exemplified by Coleman . In this case it was held that the ET was well within its powers to make a referral to the ECJ. This is provided for in Rule 58 of the ET Rules of Procedure 2004. Question 2[b] A disciplinary committee is neither a court nor a tribunal. Therefore, it is precluded from referring to the ECJ for a preliminary hearing. Moreover, a disciplinary committee, though a quasi – judicial body, is all the same dependent on the administrator; hence, the   ECJ will not accept a preliminary hearing referral from it. This is on the basis of the ruling in Corbiau . Question 2 [c] The Appellate Court had deemed the issue to be irrelevant and unarguable and consequently, unfit to be referred to even the House of Lords. Therefore, the issue is definitely not to be referred to the ECJ.   In the Max Mara Fashion Group case, no questions had been submitted for a reference. Further the case was so ambiguous that the ECJ refused to have anything to do with it. It was also unclear as to why the case had been sent for reference and there were no provisions of EC law that had been violated . Question 2 [d] The House of Lords need not refer to the ECJ, because it is fully convinced that it has comprehended the piece of legislation under consideration. Since, there is no breach of EC law by the national law, nor is there any difficulty in interpreting EC law, there is no necessity to approach the ECJ for a preliminary reference. Question 2 [e] In the Nolle case, the ECJ held that a referral would not be entertained, if its purpose was only restricted to fact finding . As such the ECJ requires a verification of all the facts before filing a reference with it. Moreover, the Home Office is not a judicial body. Therefore, the Home Office cannot refer to the ECJ, in order to ascertain whether the Iranian student is to be deported or not. Bibliography Case 314/85, Foto-Frost v Hauptzollamt Là ¼beck-Ost (1987) . Case C – 16/90 Nolle v. Hauptzollamp Bremen – Freihafen (1991) ECR I – 5163. Case C-83/91, Wienard Meilicke v ADV/ORGA FA Meyer AG, [1992] ECR I-4871. Case C – 24/92, Corbiau v. Administration des Contributions, (1993) ECR I – 1277. Case C-307/95 Max Mara Fashion Group (1995) ECR I-5083. C – 415/93 Bosman v UEFA (1995) ECR I – 4921. Case C-461/03, Gaston Schul Douane-expediteur BV v Minister van Landbouw, Natuur en Voedselkwaliteit, (2005). Case C-344/04, R (International Air Transport Association and European Low Fares Airline Association) v Department for Transport, (2006). C – 303/06, S. Coleman v. Attridge Law, Steve Law, (2006). The Relation Between National Courts and the European Court of Justice in the European Union Judicial System: Preliminary Ruling Regimes According to Articles 234 EC, 68 EC, and 35 EU. February 2007. 3 February 2008.

Mentoring Leadership Essay

Leadership has always been an important principle that shapes and motivates people to become better. It serves as a catalyst providing opportunities for members to recognize their strengths and grow from their experiences. Seeing this, to better understand Jesus’ style of mentoring leadership, it is then crucial to identify common elements shaping this approach and relate it with specific strengths and weaknesses. By actively determining these areas, it can create appreciation of how Jesus was able to hone his disciples to continue and expand his principles and teachings. Analyzing Jesus’ ministry, it can be argued that he seeks to promote a mentoring leadership style. This specific method corresponds to the ability of a leader to provide necessary means to train members to continue specific objectives. The main purpose of this style it to establish continuity and promote transcendence from an individual leader to several followers and expand the ideas or skills taught (Towns, 2007). Seeing this, Jesus’ participation and interaction with the disciples remains to be rooted in giving each one the capacity to pursue his teachings and become the fundamental groundwork for Christianity. Assessing the key strengths of this leadership approach, it can be argued that this process provides opportunities for the leader to become a teacher, communicate, and inspire members to follow. Under the first precept, a mentoring leadership style promotes the individual to become a teacher (Towns, 2007). Here, Jesus readily gives himself to be of service to his disciples by means of educating them about the scriptures and the values necessary to become a true Christian. Such dynamics then increase the ability of members to appreciate and relate with the purpose of Jesus both as a leader and a teacher. The second facet involves enhancing communication process. Here, Jesus’ ministry revolves around taking care of his disciples and becoming patient to their needs. Though the way Jesus communicates to his disciples may at oftentimes be metaphorical, he makes it a point to establish good connections with each one. This then trains the disciples to become committed towards reinforcing communication and dialogue as it remains to be a crucial precept to help promote the process of evangelization and conversion (Towns, 2007). The last part involves inspiring members to become better. Given the dynamics of Jesus’ ministry, he was able to put his words into actions and gain the respect of his disciples. Due to this, he was able to further his teachings and also allow members to recognize their individual inputs in the application of their specific leadership style (Towns, 2007). Due to this, Jesus was able to shape the value of his followers according to what he believes is essential. On the other hand, the weaknesses of this leadership style include (1) failure, (2) expectation of immediate results, and (3) live a life of isolation (Towns, 2007). In the first aspect, failure corresponds to the inability of a leader to create and develop the mentoring process. The most applicable example of this to Jesus’ life was the betrayal of Judas Iscariot and his limited ability to imbibe the teachings of Jesus. The second one looks into how some disciples expect immediate results from what the mentoring leader says. Applying this to the case of Jesus, the Bible has elaborated various scenes in the Gospel where the disciples question various principles and tenets of Jesus’ teaching. This then impedes the ability of disciples to fully take advantage of progressing and incorporating the ideas and values taught by Jesus to each one (Towns, 2007). Lastly, Jesus’ mentoring leadership style also promotes a life of isolation. Since Jesus is too focused to achieve his purpose and role in life, he found limited time to spend for himself and open up to his disciples about his personality and life (Towns, 2007). Though this cannot be entirely seen throughout Jesus’ ministry, this also served to provide confusion and misunderstanding among his disciples on specific occasions. In the end, Jesus’ mentoring leadership style illustrates both strengths and weaknesses in application. The strengths mentioned highlight how this approach can provide the opportunities for members to grow and continue the principles taught by the leader. However, the limitations of this approach also impede the ability to further encourage transcendence and growth. Regardless of these inputs, Jesus was successful in molding followers according to his purpose and beliefs due to his unconditional care given to his disciples together with the time and patience given.

Katherine Mansfield Essay

She was born in 1888 in Wellington, a town labeled â€Å"the empire city† by its white inhabitants, who modeled themselves on British life and relished their city’s bourgeois respectability. [1] At an early age, Mansfield witnessed the disjuncture between the colonial and the native, or Maori, ways of life, prompting her to criticize the treatment of the Maoris in several diary entries and short stories. [2] Mansfield’s biographer, Angela Smith, writes: â€Å"It was her childhood experience of living in a society where one way of life was imposed on another, and did not quite fit in† that sharpened her modernist impulse to focus on moments of â€Å"disruption† or encounters with â€Å"strange or disturbing† aspects of life. [3] Her feelings of disjuncture were accentuated when she arrived in Britain in 1903 to attend Queen’s College. In many respects, Mansfield remained a lifelong outsider, a traveler between two seemingly similar yet profoundly different worlds. After briefly returning to New Zealand in 1906, she moved back to Europe in 1908, living and writing in England and parts of continental Europe. Until her premature death from tuberculosis at the age of 34, Mansfield remained in Europe, leading a Bohemian, unconventional way of life. The Domestic Picturesque Mansfield’s short story â€Å"Prelude† is set in New Zealand and dramatizes the disjunctures of colonial life through an account of the Burnell family’s move from Wellington to a country village. The story takes its title from Wordsworth’s seminal poem, â€Å"The Prelude,† the first version of which was completed in 1805, which casts the poet as a traveler and chronicles the â€Å"growth of a poet’s mind. †[4] Although the Burnell family moves a mere â€Å"six miles† from town, the move is not inconsequential; it enacts a break with their previous way of life and alerts the family members to the various discontinuities in their lives. Beneath the veneer of the Burnells’ harmonious domestic life are faint undercurrents of aggression and unhappiness. The haunting specter of a mysterious aloe plant and a slaughtered duck in their well-manicured yard suggests that the family’s â€Å"awfully nice† new home conceals moments of brutality and ignorance toward another way of life that was suppressed and denied. [5] As I will propose, these two incidents echo the aesthetic concept of the sublime, as they encapsulate a mysterious power that awes its beholders and cannot be fully contained within their picturesque home. Through her subtle, dream-like prose, Mansfield deploys traditional aesthetic conventions like the picturesque while simultaneously transfiguring, subverting, and reinventing them in a modernist context. The concept of the picturesque was first defined by its originator, William Gilpin, an 18th century artist and clergyman, as â€Å"that kind of beauty which is agreeable in a picture. †[6] Thus, a scene or representation is beautiful when it echoes an already-established, artistic conception of beauty, revealing the self-reinforcing way in which art creates the standard of beauty for both art and life. Mansfield presents these picturesque moments in order to demystify them and reveal the suppression and violence they contain. In addition to â€Å"Prelude,† her stories â€Å"Garden Party† and â€Å"Bliss† dramatize the transformation and inversion of picturesque moments of bourgeois life and domestic harmony. While she seems to exhibit a certain attachment to these standard aesthetic forms, Mansfield subtly interrogates many of these conventions in a strikingly modernist way. Through her childhood in a colony, Mansfield also became attuned to the violence and inequalities of colonialism. As Angela Smith suggests, her early writings demonstrate a keen sensitivity towards a repressed history of brutality and duplicity. [7] In her 1912 short story â€Å"How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped,† she questions and overturns the perspective of the colonialist, whose vantage point historically trumps that of the native. The deliberate ambivalence of the word â€Å"kidnapping† dramatizes the conflict between the colonist’s perspective and Pearl’s joyful, eye-opening experiences during her abduction. In a similar way, empire dramatized for Mansfield the way that a picturesque, bourgeois household could suppress alternative perspectives. The Sublime In â€Å"Prelude,† the mysterious, sublime aloe plant disrupts the pleasant domesticity of the Burnell household. Their well-manicured yard with its tennis lawn, garden, and orchard also contains a wild, unseemly side—â€Å"this was the frightening side, and no garden at all. †[8] This â€Å"side† contains the aloe plant, which exerts a mysterious, enthralling power over its awed beholders. In its resemblance to the ocean, the aloe assumes the characteristics of the sublime: â€Å"the high grassy bank on which the aloe rested rose up like a wave, and the aloe seemed to ride upon it like a shop with the oars lifted. Bright moonlight hung upon the lifted oars like water, and on the green wave glittered the dew. †[9] For many writers and poets, the ocean was a manifestation of the sublime because of its unfathomable power and scale that awed and humbled its observers. The aloe’s strikingly physiological effect on its viewers recalls Edmund Burke’s sublime, which overpowers its observer and reinforces the limitations of human reason and control. In his famous treatise on the sublime, Burke writes: â€Å"greatness of dimension, vastness of extent or quantity† is a powerful cause of the sublime, as it embodies the violent and overpowering forces of nature. [10] In a similar vein, the child, Kezia Burnell’s first impression upon seeing the â€Å"fat swelling plant with its cruel leaves and fleshy stem† is one of awe and wonder. [11] In this case, the sublimity of the aloe plant disrupts and challenges the domestic picturesque as it defies mastery, categorization, and traditional notions of beauty. In its resistance to categorization and control, the sublime embodies the part of the ungovernable landscape that the Burnell family cannot domesticate and the picturesque cannot frame. As a result, in â€Å"Prelude,† the magnitude of the sublime interrupts and fractures the tranquil surface of the picturesque by exposing the unfathomable depths beneath it. The colonial backdrop of the Burnells’ yard also contributes to the mysterious, occult power of the aloe. This unruly part of their property hints toward a landscape that eludes domestication and serves as a constant reminder that the Burnell family is living in a land that is not quite theirs and cannot be fully tamed. [12] At the age of 19, Mansfield wrote that the New Zealand bush outside of the cities is â€Å"all so gigantic and tragic—and even in the bright sunlight it is so passionately secret. †[13] For Mansfield, the bush embodies the history of a people whose lives have been interrupted and displaced by European settlers. [14] After wars, brutal colonial practices, and European diseases had devastated the local Maori population, the bush became a haunting monument to their presence. As the Burnell family settles down to sleep on the first night in their new home, â€Å"far away in the bush there sounded a harsh rapid chatter: â€Å"Ha-ha-ha†¦ Ha-ha-ha. †[15] In her subtle way, Mansfield unveils the voices of those whose perspectives are excluded from this portrait of nocturnal domestic harmony. In a similar way, the aloe plant exudes an unfathomable history that is beyond the time and place of the Burnells. Even its age—implied by the fact that it flowers â€Å"once every hundred years†Ã¢â‚¬â€suggests that the aloe exists on a different scale than its human beholders. [16] In its ancient, superhuman scale, the aloe gestures towards the â€Å"gigantic,† indicating a subtle, but implicitly threatening power within, or in proximity of the home. The aloe is a kind of lacuna in the imperial landscape of New Zealand, whose power threatens the colonial household and its control over the landscape. [17] By disrupting and encroaching upon the ostensibly safe domestic sphere, the aloe also echoes the â€Å"unheimlich,† or uncanny, an aesthetic concept explored by Sigmund Freud in his 1919 essay, â€Å"The Uncanny. † The uncanny becomes, in part, an invasive force violating the sacred, domestic sphere and hearkens back to a previously repressed or hidden impulse: â€Å"The uncanny is something which ought to have remained hidden but has come to light. †[18] In â€Å"Prelude,† the aloe is initially depicted as a threatening force that â€Å"might have had claws instead of roots. The curving leaves seemed to be hiding something. †[19] Positioned within the safe space of their property, the aloe is a menacing, ungovernable force that seems to encroach upon it. The plant becomes part of the repressed history of the landscape—a history that is only apparent to Kezia, her mother Linda Burnell, and her grandmother Mrs. Fairfield, who are attuned to the forces below the surface of the picturesque exterior. Violent Underpinnings Beneath many of Mansfield’s picturesque domestic scenes are moments of violence and rupture. In â€Å"Garden Party,† for instance, a poor man falls to his death during the preparations for a much-anticipated social gathering of the wealthy Sheridan family, undermining the convivial spirit of the occasion. In â€Å"Prelude,† Pat, the handyman, slaughters a duck while the children watch with grotesque enthrallment as it waddles for a few steps after being decapitated. â€Å"The crowning wonder† of the dead duck walking hearkens back to Burke’s sublime, which is experienced in â€Å"Prelude† within the confines of the private residence. [20] The sublimity of this apparent defiance of the properties of death acts as a dramatic external force imposing on the observers’ intellect and reason in a profoundly Burkian way. But later that night, when the duck is placed in front of the patriarch, Stanley Burnell, â€Å"it did not look as if it had ever had a head. †[21] The duck’s picturesque dressing—â€Å"its legs tied together with a piece of string and a wreath of little balls of stuffing round it†Ã¢â‚¬â€conceals its violent death. [22] In a similar way, the â€Å"awfully nice† picturesque house is imposed upon the landscape, as if it had never been any other way. [23] Through reconfiguration and transformation, a new imperial order conceals the fact that an older order once lay beneath it. In both cases, the picturesque functions as a way of naturalizing the violent order of domination. As Pat’s golden earrings distract Kezia from her grief over the duck’s death, the duck’s pretty garnish conceals its â€Å"basted resignation. †[24] There is no such thing as a pure aesthetics, Mansfield seems to suggest, as each serene moment is implicated in some act of violence, brutality, or suppression. In â€Å"Prelude,† the good-natured Pat disrupts a pre-existing picturesque scene in which ducks â€Å"preen their dazzling breasts† amidst the pools and â€Å"bushes of yellow flowers and blackberries. †[25] Tellingly, the duck pond contains a bridge, a typical feature of the picturesque that reconciles or bridges the gap between different aspects of the scenery. In this way, the Burnell family’s cultivation of the land by planting and slaughtering ducks disrupts another underlying order. Their unquestioning appropriation of this pre-existing order mirrors the way colonial life disrupted and undermined the indigenous Maori life. Juxtaposing two picturesque scenes that interrupt and conflict with one another, Mansfield questions and unravels the conventional image of the picturesque. This interplay of various conflicting aesthetic orders constitutes part of Mansfield’s modernist style, in which aesthetic forms are ruptured, fragmented, and overturned. As the yard’s landscape bears traces of the Maori past, so the quiet harmony of the Burnells’ domesticity is underscored by deep, unspoken tensions and an animosity that hints at the uncanny. In fact, the only character who expresses any contentment is Stanley, who reflects, â€Å"By God, he was a perfect fool to feel as happy as this! †[26] Yet even he shudders upon entering his new driveway, as â€Å"a sort of panic overtook Burnell whenever he approached near home. †[27] Beneath this veneer of marital bliss and familial harmony, his wife Linda occasionally ignores her children and expresses hatred towards her husband and his aggressive sexuality: â€Å"there were times when he was frightening—really frightening. When she screamed at the top of her voice, ‘You are killing me. ’†[28] Meanwhile Stanley and Beryl, Linda’s sister, seem to have a flirtatious, indecent relationship: â€Å"Only last night when he was reading the paper her false self had stood beside him and leaned against his shoulder on purpose. Hadn’t she put her hand over his†¦ so that he should see how white her hand was beside his brown one. †[29] Dramatizing these dynamics, Mansfield suggests that a â€Å"happy† household outside of town is not as â€Å"dirt cheap† as Stanley boasts; it comes at the cost of servitude, sexual aggression, and a ravaged Maori landscape. [30] Through these layers, which Mansfield subtly strips off one at a time, she artfully exposes the way that an existing political and aesthetic order is not what it seems to be or how it has always been. Her short stories are fraught with their own tensions; while exposing the picturesque as false and absurd, she nevertheless draws on its conventional associations. Similarly, her subtle attempts to question colonial power are embedded in a seemingly idealized portrait of colonial life. Mansfield creates a seemingly beautiful or normal image, such as the happy family in â€Å"Prelude,† â€Å"Bliss,† or â€Å"Garden Party,† and then slowly challenges it through a subtle counter-narrative. In this way, her deployment of modernist techniques is less pronounced than that of James Joyce and her other modernist contemporaries. Just as she challenges aesthetic conventions, Mansfield unravels the reader’s ideas about her own stories by presenting a seemingly beautiful, transparent narrative that is haunted by tensions, lacunae, and opacity. Like the headless walking duck, these fictions of transparency and harmony quickly collapse upon closer inspection.