Behavioral and Social/Cognitive Approaches to Forming Habits

Habit as defined in Webster’s as a: a behavior pattern acquired by frequent repetition or physiologic exposure that shows itself in regularity or increased facility of performance b : an acquired mode of behavior that has become nearly or completely involuntary (Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online, 2011). Behavior is the manner of conducting oneself or anything that an organism does involving action and response to stimulation. In everyday life habits are formed and intertwined with ones behavior. People are often associated with the way they behave based on the environment they come from and the habits they develop from that environment. Behavioral Theorists believe learning experiences as the development of our personality. During these developmental years the environment has the greatest influence on the personality. This influence is reinforced by positive or negative rewards. Classic conditioning explains many behavioral reaction patterns. When a person receives positive reinforcement of a behavior (reward), they develop this behavior as part of their own. A person will continue to perform a certain action because of the reward at the end of the action. An Actor receives a Grammy for outstanding performance. That actor will try to perform this action again in the next movie they are in. On the other hand, negative reinforcement (punishment) will elicit a response to not perform that behavior again. (Friedman & Schustack, 2009). If you put your finger in an electric socket the electric shock will influence you not to perform this habit again. John B. Watson was instrumental in the development of the behavioral learning approach. Watson believed in the experimental method and if psychology were to be a science, then only the observable behavior was a reasonable matter of science (Friedman & Schustack, 2009). He looked at obvious behaviors that could be learned and controlled by the therapist. During his experiments Watson used animals and not human subjects. He believed he could get the same results from animals that others did using humans. Traditional behaviorism identifies two basic types of conditioning. Classic conditioning is defined by the repeated exposure of an unconditioned stimulus that elicits an unconditioned response and a neutral stimulus. The developed neutral stimulus can develop the same response as the unconditioned stimulus. B. F. Skinner developed the more radical approach of Operant conditioning. Operant conditioning results when a behavior is followed by reinforcement or punishment (Burger, 2010). Social cognitive personality development has some similarity as behaviorism. Behavioral and Social learning theories consists of four characteristic: Behaviorism, Basic Principles of Conditioning, Social Learning theory, and Social-Cognitive Theory. Behavioral is regarded as â€Å"attitude change, language acquisition, psychotherapy, student-teacher interaction, problem solving, gender roles, and job satisfaction. † Social learning is regarded as â€Å"thoughts, morals, expectancies, and individual insights† (Burger, 2010). Social-Cognitive theory as described by Albert Bandura engages in thinking and symbolic learning from observation. Behaviorism holds that people are conditioned, or trained, to respond in certain ways by rewards and punishments. Bandura suggested that there must be a way that people can learn simply by watching others, thereby removing the need to learn everything by monotonous trial-and-error (Krapp, 2005). People learn by observing others, with the environment, behavior, and cognition all as the chief factors in influencing development. These three factors are not stagnant or self-sufficient; rather, they are all shared. According to social learning theory, modeling influences learning primarily through its informative functions. As the observers in our environment we retain a portion of the modeled behavior, which then serves as a blueprint for the behavior. This type of learning incorporates four components: attention, retention, motor, and motivational processes that help to understand why individuals imitate socially desirable behavior (Krapp, 2005). Habits are developed from childhood into adulthood. Good and bad habits are formed during this time based on behavior and social influences. In today’s society our bad habits are more noticeable than our good ones. We are always trying to correct someone from doing something we would not do or say, yet we do not understand why they behave the way they do. Some families develop household habits that last a lifetime and can be passed from child to child. These childhood habits are hard to break and require years of reconditioning. Some become part of your way of life. In my family one of the many habits I developed or inherited, was to eat eggs with jelly all over them. Yes that is right!! You mix the jelly in with the eggs and that is how they are eaten. My father ate his eggs that way, his father ate eggs the same way and so did my Great Grandfather. I have yet to break this habit. My father reinforced this habit by providing praise and allowing me to try different jellies on my eggs. The more he paid attention to this behavior the more I performed the act. He had no idea he was conditioning me to perform a certain action based on his praise/reward. Until I studied behaviorism I had no idea this was a form of conditioning. This was not something he taught me, this was a behavior I observed as part of my family environment. Once I tried the eggs with jelly, I like the taste and this became part of my habits when eating scrambled eggs. For my children I allow them to have free will and eat what they like and how they like it. My six year old likes ketchup on her broccoli. This is not learned from observation, this is just her. of his is a good example of behavior of the family that influenced one of my habits. While serving in the Military, I developed a social habit that is wide spread in the Army. Using acronyms is a large part of the military language. We use this as part of our social communication. If you do not know or understand the terminology you are not â€Å"Hooah† enough. Some may say that situation is FUBAR (Fouled up Beyond All Recognition). I contribute my behavior more to the social cognitive theories of observation. My behavior has been shaped from observing others around me and taking bits and pieces from each of them and incorporating those behaviors into my personality. To this day I am an observer of others behavior. Good or bad, I have the free will to make a determination on what parts I will use to become part of my personality. This is why I disagree with the behaviorism theorist. I have not received reward or punishment for my behavior. Good, bad, or indifferent, my personality has not been affected by treating me like a lab rat and performing behavior changing experiments on me. I believe some personalities do need operant conditioning, mine is just not one of them. For those personalities developed from socially unacceptable environments, some form of conditioning is necessary to develop a socially acceptable behavior. The first course of action is to take them out of the environment and allow them to see a more positive behavior. The saying goes you can take the child out f the country, but you cannot take the country out of the child (country can be substituted with any negative environment). I have worked hard to eat eggs the way it is socially accepted. In public I will eat the way it is expected for you to eat, but this differs from environment to environment. In Germany, boiled eggs are egg more served than scrambled. Thereby I adjust to the environment I am exposed to. At home I can eat the way I want to and enjoy my eggs and jelly. Some habits you just do not want to change. I enjoy the taste of a finely cooked, scrambled egg and grape jelly.

Causes of the Rise in Global Temperatures

The causes of the rise in global temperatures have been quite controversial to many scholars, relating it to different arguments which are attributed to questions of the unavoidability of the said phenomenon to occur in our planet. The scientific consensus, however, is that global warming is caused by greenhouse gases (Joint Science Academies, 2001). The greenhouse gases acts as a trap to the infrared which are supposed to be released in the earth’s atmosphere. This process of absorption of the greenhouse gases is then referred to as global warming as the infrared trapped within the surface of the earth is proven to be warming the earth. These greenhouse gases is produced through various forms, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, this kind of gas is released through its most common types such as Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4), and Nitrous Oxide (N2O). The findings of these atmospheric gases’ effects to the earth’s surface, thereafter, have sparked the controversial involvement of humankind in its contribution to the emission of these said gases. According to New York Times, the United Nation’s panel, one which specializes on global warming, pertains to human activity as the â€Å"obvious† cause of the occurrence. We are ought to be causing global warming in our every move in this industrialized and technologically advanced world. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, the mere operation of our homes and businesses are causing us our environment. We use electricity everyday, we buy our products full of different chemicals, and we drive our cars to get us to places but these mere activities are the very grounds of the formation of greenhouse gases as these are the most significant activities that burn fossil fuel. In addition, deforestation caused by human initiatives greatly contributes to the global warming emissions as well.

Gift Giving in Japan

Anthrop 525 Term Paper Yi Min Yeng ( Leon ) Katherine Rupp began the study of Japan and Japanese when she was an undergraduate at Princeton University as noted in the Acknowledge portion of the book, Gift-Giving in Japan: Cash, Connections. Cosmologies. After that she had her graduated training in the University of Chicago funded by the National Science Foundation and the University itself, including one year of support from the Committee on Japanese Studies. Before the writing of this book, Katherine Rupp took twenty months of field work In Japan which is funded by the Japanese Ministry of Education.She finally completed the manuscript of Gift-Giving in Japan as a postdoctoral associate of the Council on East Asian Studies at Yale University in the Anthropology Department (Rupp 2003). Much like Mauss, Katherine Rupp is interested in the cultural effect of the gift giving and exchanges in Japan. She too believes that there is a social and cosmic order, much like Marcel Mauss’s total social phenomenon that it influences people but is also shape by the individuals. She focuses on the content of gift giving considers historical changes in gift exchange practice and differences in giving among groups.Like Mauss, provokes thought on our own practices of exchange, gift and otherwise (Citation). She spent eighteen months of intensive scientific field works in Tokyo metropolitan area and also short term research on other parts of Japan by interviewing experts such as authors of gift giving books, Buddhists and Shinto priests, departmental and funeral home employees, workers and different classes of families. All these because she seeks to understand multiple questions such as â€Å"Why do people give as much, as often, and in the particular ways that they do? Why do some people reject giving and receiving?How do attitudes towards practice of giving relate to considerations of age, class, gender, geographic area, occupation, and religion? †¦ In What ways ca n these study of gifts in Japan contribute to the field of gifts and exchange in anthropology? † (Rupp 2003:2). Other than that, she conducted observational studies on festivals, election rallies, house building ritual and other kinds of ceremonies with gift giving integrated in it. Besides using comparative methods, the use of statistic is also incorporated such as recording the amount and value of gift received and purchased on different events.She believes that the recent anthropological attention of the strong contrast between commodities and gifts are not distinctively unrelated but are interconnected (Rupp 2003:182). The Gift Giving in Japan can be separated into six chapters. The book first emphasized the importance of gift giving in various ways such as pointing out reasons and giving the enormous examples of gift giving. People in Japan feel obligated and burdened when they receives gifts, some even avoid visiting their hometown or decide not to enclose the informatio n to people when they do.Gift giving on the other hand is very crucial to the macroeconomic level as well as departmental stores earn most of their profits during ceremonial festivals throughout the years such as ‘gosekku’ the five seasonal celebrations, new year, Christmas eve and Valentine’s day (Rupp 2003:2,119). Rupp too focused on examples of gift giving such as wedding gifts and returns sent to Mrs. Ueda, Mr. Hoshino’s house building ceremonial gift and returns, Mr. Ishiyasama’s father’s funeral gifts and returns, Mr. Tanabe declination of gifts and lastly gift categorizing of â€Å"meaningless† gifts, travel gifts, and seasonal gifts from Mrs.Inoue. All these examples raise questions of relationships, the level of gratitude, and the influence of class between giving and receiving that will be explained on further chapters (Rupp 2003:33). Second chapter focus on the question raised previously with the emphasize in strength of rel ationship, gratitude and hierarchy. The value of the gift varies with the strength of the relationship. At times of celebration, those who bring enormous gifts are usually close friends or relatives and those who hardly brought anything are superficial friends or unfamiliar relatives most of the time.For example during the house building ceremony people that are Mr. Hoshino’s true friends gave more than his superficial friends. And that those who gave a higher value of gift in order to create stronger relationship can be precarious as sometimes it can distant one from the receiver causing a backfire (Rupp 2003:36). Secondly, gift value can increase enormously as a form of gratitude to show appreciation for the receiver. For example, Mr. Hoshino received a large sum of money during his house building ceremony from his cousin because his wife had been taking care of his mum (Rupp 2003:41).Lastly, the social class of a person can influence the value of gifts. A person with a hig her hierarchy is obligated to give a higher value of gift compared to a lower one. On the other hand, they are also able to receive higher value of gifts as well. During Mrs Ueda’s son’s wedding, his superior in the company who made the decision to hire him gave them a gift worth a hundred thousand yen which is compared to be higher than average, yet he received three hundred thousand yen in return as a form of gratitude also because of his superior ranking.In order to understand and interpret the meaning of gifts it is crucial to understand the three main factors which are relationship, gratitude and hierarchies that influence the value of gift giving (Rupp 2003:50). Gifts are not only given in considering of value, as not all items with high values symbolize auspiciousness for certain events. Gift giving practices are implemented during life and seasonal cycle practices and are considered highly important.These rites of passages vary in places and modern cities such as Tokyo considers these practices burdensome, old fashioned and irrelevant where else people in Warabi observed these practices for generations (Rupp 2003: 53). There are three important life cycles which are birth, marriage and death which all three will be given bowls of rice packed into a mound sphere shape symbolizing total consumption and breaking of relationship and it was considered inauspicious not to do it. For the birth of a child, it meant it means separation from the world of the dead.A woman consumes bowls of rice symbolizing separation from her side of family and lastly the dead is separated from the live world when a bowl of rice is given to the deceased. But as time passes, history changes and most of the people do not implement some of these traditions and nor do they consider as inauspicious as before. Life cycle events are divided into happy and sad occasions. During happy occasion such as birth and marriage, bills should be new and shiny while facing up in an el aborately decorated envelope where else sad occasion such as death, bills given should be old and crumbled while facing down in another kind of envelope.Also, certain colors and method of tying a knot are used in happy and sad occasion with different meanings. For example, black or white ‘musubikiri’ knots which are knots that cannot be undone are used for funerals and red, white or gold butterfly knots are used for marriage. Returned gifts too are carefully considered as it is inappropriate to return inauspicious gifts as different items symbolize different meanings (Rupp 2003: 59). Besides life cycles, most gifts in Japan are given in related to seasonal cycles with yearend and midyear gifts with the highest percentage also there are festivals such as ‘bon’, ‘Gosekku’, ‘Higan’.Throughout the history, traditions in festivals have changed especially when the Meiji government changed most of the ritual to the worship of Shinto God i n order to bolster State Shinto and the emperor’s position (Rupp 2003:123). The book then describes the auspicious decorates people put up for each traditional festivals such as the zigzag white flags during New Years and Carp banners during ‘Gosekku’ festival, and people send auspicious gifts such as long noodles during the New Year which symbolize one life’s will extend like the long noodles (Rupp 2003:117).Other than that, gifts will be offered to the dead on ‘bon’ festival in the form of gratitude. Relatives will visit their families and company employees will visit their superiors during New Year and they will be given auspicious gifts or snacks such as the two rounded rice cakes similar to the rounded bowl rice thus reinforcing the hierarchy of their relationships (Rupp 2003: 122). Besides traditional seasonal festivals, Japan do celebrate Western holidays such as Christmas Eve, Valentine’s day, Father’s day and Mother†™s day. Christmas Eve is quite unique in Japan as it is strongly associated with romance.Heart shape decorations with bells will be decorated in the streets and young men are willing to pay over one hundred thousand yen for a date during Christmas Eve. Even though men think Valentine’s Day chocolate gift as absurd but at the same they would be secretly delighted if received. Yet these western festivals still requires return gifts similar to the traditional festivals. Interestingly enough, unlike traditional festiavals which benefits men more than women, western festivals are the only festivals that it is women who have the upper hand (Rupp 2003: 144-154).The practice of gift giving has variations of attitudes and it â€Å"vary according to regions, occupations, education, class, family background, gender, religion, and personality† (Rupp 2003:155). For example, most funerals in Warabi region returns a fixed value of gift yet funerals in Tokyo returns records each rec eived gift and returns the half value of it after forty nine days. Also, most people studied in Warabi region did receive higher education in the middle or lower class. They are straight forward and do not concern with politeness and will assume people from Tokyo are calculative concerned with ranking.Other than that, it is an assumed social fact that women have perfect knowledge in gift giving and that they are responsible for the gift giving between their husbands or other households as well. If a women who was from another region married to a men in Tokyo and do not know the region’s practices, she would be sanctioned yet people would not fault the husband which could have told her. By giving gifts from women on behalf of their husband, it â€Å"softens† the gifts and saves face for men as it is unusual for men to offer gifts to the people who are superior over them (Rupp 2003:159-161).Thus this type of gift giving system reinforced the hierarchy of men and women an d the subordination of women below men. Besides hierarchy between men and women there are practices between other subordinates and superior such as tenant and landlord, patient and doctors. People send gifts to their land lord or doctors as a form of gratitude even though there is a contract between them which the tenant or patient has already fulfilled. Interestingly enough even though hospitals forbidden gifts for doctors, patients still send cash gift certificates from high ranked departmental stores to the doctors’ house.It seems to be a bad custom according to Mrs. Inoue, yet everyone abides by it and they do not consider it as a bribe (Rupp 2003: 164). Even with people like Mr. Tanabe who declined a valuable live shrimp gift from his customer as he felt burdened are uncomfortable of calling these practices bribery (Rupp 2003: 166). Due to these norms, there is a rising of abuse of the system and forming an example of forced giving by doctors throughout Japan. There are cases that if no valued gifts are given to the doctors as a form of â€Å"gratitude†, the quality of the patient’s care will decrease dramatically.In the conclusion of the book, Rupp emphasizes that the Western concept of gift and market cannot be in the same realm and should not be applied in Japanese culture. Rupp uses Mauss’s theory of reaching back into history to seek explanation and highlight that Western culture have once been like Japanese culture which when gifts are not separated from the realm of buying and selling (Rupp 2003: 181). Japan is a place that challenges the stereotype of Western capitalist societies which are characterized almost exclusively by the commodity form with the circulation of independent transaction as alienable objects.Rupp brought up multiple reviews on Japan’s gift giving practices and evaluates those who critics it as irrelevant and misleading. Japan is a major capitalist society, yet gifts and commodities are not two different realms but entangled together. In Japan, calculation of value on an item might not always be related to the economic realm compared to the Western societies. She concludes that the practice of gift giving in Japan is not so much in relation to an individual level as it is the shaping and solidification of the social order, which then influences the individuals. Notes for review:On gift giving guan xi : purpose of Gift giving is shifting from its original meaning. Nowadays coporate gift givings are mainly aimed for illicit payments, corruption and pursuit of self interest instead of the building of ‘guan xi’ which means relationship or even providing social solidarity in macro levels. Understanding gift giving in japan page 20 the practice of gift exchange encompasses a wide range of social and cultural implications. Many purposes are served, such as fulfilling a sense of obligation to return a favor, reciprocating a favor, cultivating rapport, and enhancing a willingness to share sad and happy occasions.When the Japanese practice gift giving, they always have some reason why they wish to give a gift to another. A gift without reason is not acceptable For example, when one company in Japan wishes to do business with another company in Japan, a salesperson from the first company will visit the prospective client company and take a small gift, perhaps sweets or candy valued 1,000 yen The ‘Social Death' of Unused Gifts:  Surplus and Value in Contemporary Japan page 396 it is the sentimental value we attribute to things we have had a long-term relationship with that keeps us from disposing of them.However, my ? eldwork suggests that in Japan the propensity for not throwing things away is more affected by a feeling of duty than emotional attachment. The duty people felt towards objects is grounded in an awareness of the interrelatedness of human and nonhuman entities. In other words, things offer their service to people who, in return , should be thankful and treat objects respectfully Many people receive excessive quantities of these gifts because of the overall increase in af? ence since the economic growth of the 1970s that has led to an acceleration of the scale of the Japanese gift economy. Because the surplus of value embodied in unused gifts can only be recouped through sociality (Henderson, 2004), many tried to re-circulate their ‘unused goods’ through intimate, personal networks. These data thus question accounts that depict Japan as an hierarchical, formal society primarily grounded in ritualized gift exchange. GIFTS BRIBES AND GUAN XI page 399 Clearly guanxi can be used for instrumental purposes, and this usage is recog- nized by members of the society.However, it is referred to as the art of guanxi, be- cause the style of exchange and the appropriateness of the performance are critical to its effectiveness. The style and manner of gift exchange is not optional; rather, it is fundamental t o its operation. Although a relationship may be cultivated with in- strumental goals foremost in mind, the forms must be followed if the goals are to be achieved. The relationship must be presented as primary and the exchanges, useful though they may be, treated as only secondary.If, instead, it becomes apparent that the relationship involves only material interest and is characterized by direct and immediate payment, the exchange is classified as one of bribery Gifts, bribes and solicitions: page 522 In traditional Chinese society, relationships, quanxi, are moderated and balanced by renqing, obligations of reciprocity (Hwang, 1987). A patient receiving service from a doctor may feel obligated by renqing to reciprocate with an informal payment or gift. Alternatively, patients who desire new or continuing care from a doctor may give a gift or payment as a way of ‘‘seeking relationship’’ (Lyckholm, 1998).The rules of renqing dictate that if the keeper of a r esource accepts a petitioner’s gift, he or she now has an obligation to provide a service (Hwang, 1987). The implementation of Taiwan’s system of national health insurance (NHI) in 1995, and the introduction of concepts of consumer rights into Taiwanese culture, created tension with the tradition of informal payments (Ensor & Savelyeva, 1998). The premises of NHI—that the health care system had an a priori obligation to provide care and that doctors’ fees would be set and paid by a third party—stood in sharp contrast to the premises of renqing.This study examines how the meaning of informal payments (red envelopes), as an integral part of the doctor–patient relationship, evolved during the process of healthcare reform in Taiwan. The red envelopes discussed in this paper differ from traditional gift-giving. ‘Red envelopes,’ in the context of the doctor–patient relationship, imply the transfer of money or valuables from pat ients to doctors in return for an enhanced or improved medical encounter Dagang Write gift giving and mauss idea Good field world Then say about bribery Then conclude bribery is not same with gift giving. Why Conclusion

Globally Optimized Operations TLMT 441 Research paper

Globally Optimized Operations TLMT 441 - Research Paper Example Globally optimized operations are increasingly being used by companies in the real world business situation, to enhance their profits. As opposed to the traditional approach of seeking independent opportunities for the improvement of the business operations, companies can increase their profits by considering the various broader subsets of the business and observing how each of the major processes affect each other. For example, a business can in the case of a shop scheduling, a business organization can look a the logistics of the delivery of raw materials for the shop as well as the various details of post production inventory shipping, retailing and marketing. This critically analyzes the concept of global optimized operations with particular focus to its contemporary and future application in logistics and supply chain management. According to Laurence (2009), companies can effectively use global optimization solutions to optimize their operations such as sourcing, production, procurement, production and distribution processes at the same time. Globally optimized operations deals with the sets and functions of the optimization in a given criteria. In this regard, the optimization operations consist of a particular constraint with a set of bounds. In the set of bounds and constraints, the variables being considered are optimized. According Ballou (2007), Supply Chain Management is currently viewed as the management of a set of processes, in whereby each process is made up of activities relevant to achieving a particular objective. For example, some of the major processes in involved in SCM include customer management, customer relationship management, order fulfillment, demand management, supplier relationship management, manufacturing flow management and returns management among others. In global optimized

INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT 1 - Essay Example Thus, the lessons learned at the early age become the foundation for an individual’s growth in the professional life. In addition, the experience gained in life within a shorter period of time is also imperative towards shaping the professional life of an individual. In my case, it was engineering and for Mr. Ramsay’s case it was the field of sports. Such decisions are taken at so early age, that there is hardly any self- knowledge or experience to support, whatever the decision has been made is the best and justifies the background to which an individual belongs. Thus, the best thing in this aspect is to expect that the future will be bright and will offer loads of opportunities. This study aims to shed light on the qualities of an entrepreneur and evaluate whether I posses those qualities or not. In order to verify it, the study will pursue different techniques. Once the characteristics and definition of entrepreneurship is being identified, a known entrepreneur will be chosen and his qualities will be compared with mine. A General Enterprising Tendency (GET) Test will be also carried out. Furthermore, interview session will be also held to get deeper insights. On the basis of the findings, a conclusion to the study will be drawn. Introduction – What Entrepreneurship Means to Me From the childhood days, I had a fascination on technology and as a result of that I have always been enthralled with new technological innovations. It is the interest in technology, which made me feel that innovation and discovery has been the fuel of comprehensive development of the society. My early role model was Charles Babbage, who is also known as the father of computers and the inventor of computers. However, with the course of time it shifted from an inventor to an entrepreneur. As I came to know about the life story of Bill Gates and understood the contribution made by him in the society, I contentedly considered him to be my role model. In addition, I a lso consider the recent sensation, Mark Zuckerberg to be one of my role models. When I slowly started to gain knowledge on social science, my perception of an entrepreneur was a person who has the ability to take risk and open a new firm. Although, the meaning of entrepreneurship, which I identified later, was much broader, this definition was not fully impractical. Rather, it was supported by a renowned scholar, where he states that entrepreneurs are the person who undertakes the risk of new enterprise (Mohanty 1). However, later I realized entrepreneur to be someone who has the ability to make correct judgmental decision pertaining to the coordination of sparse resources. In addition, I have also identified that an entrepreneur is an individual and not a committee, team or an organization. With deeper thought, I have been also able to identify that there are two types of entrepreneur namely successful entrepreneur and unsuccessful entrepreneur. Now, when I compare myself with succ essful entrepreneurs, I found that I also have the tendency to become self-suffice. However, I do not consider myself to be entrepreneur as I am yet to develop a firm which is self sustaining. Moreover, I also believe that a huge different exists between â€Å"thinking of becoming an entrepreneur† and ultimately â€Å"becoming a successful entrepreneur†. The challenge for every potential successful entrep

Office rotation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Office rotation - Essay Example The explorer instruments were used to check around the tissue, the scalar instruments cleaned the subgingival tissues, both posterior and anterior, and the universal instrument cleaned subgingival tissue as well. Then, the hygienist finished with a slow speed polish of all the teeth. The patient was satisfied with the process; because they found their teeth feeling smoother and fresher as compared to prior to the examination. Next, I observed the second hygienist. During this process I noticed she used a different order from what I learned from school. At first, she explored the teeth with the explorer instrument for any issues. Then, she polished all the plaque off from the teeth. At the time, I thought she was finished with the patient; after polishing these teeth. However, she went back, scaled each tooth, and polished again. Polishing first is a useful technique. This is due to the fact that a patient with a lot of plaque can necessarily benefit from the added attention to detail . This experience will be useful for me to improve my understanding of how the dental office operates. The hygienists were very helpful and explained the operations in the office. In addition, I was able to take the time to interact with the patient and assist if needed. Yet, it must be understood that each and every dental hygienist, and each and every dentist’s office for that matter, operates in a different and unique way. As such, I feel that I am more enthusiastic to adapt to the way I which dental offices will approach the patient and utilize new skills and new techniques. I did not have any negative experiences to add; as I was lucky to have a wonderful office to observe on this

Should the government be neutral in matters of conscience by jerry Essay

Should the government be neutral in matters of conscience by jerry mills - Essay Example The importance and relevance of neutral government The main idea of the article lies in the fact that there should be strict separation between the church and secular laws in order to eliminate unjustified oppression on people’s conscience and provide all the conditions for personal liberty and human natural rights realization. Law making and church should act in accordance with each other to help people understand what is right and what is wrong in our world (Mills). If the church imposes definite things and the laws does not even try to disprove them, such situation prevents people from good understanding what is good and evil and can’t help form right principles with the youth. Jerry Mills presents several arguments to support his point of view, which are mainly based on previous works by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson (Mills). According to Madison, neutral government should strive for establishing common morality. At the same time the social system is supposed t o provide such human rights as individualism, opportunity and stability (Mills). In his draft ‘Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments’, Madison provided quite well-reasoned explanation for the necessity of division between state and church power: religious liberty is considered to be a part and parcel of human natural rights and it should be completely free of civil legislature; religions are not in need for any civil support: there are a lot of historical examples when religion arised in response to certain opposition, not support of legal laws (Mills). In order to demonstrate horrible consequences, which church and state relationship caused, Thomas Jefferson described Virginian law about Quakers, which stated that in case Quakers refused to take an oath of adherence to the Crown, they were exiled from the state, imprisoned or even sentenced to execution (Mills). The author’s ultimate goal is to create a civil system, which would allow for moral pluralism without domination of leading factions. There are two ways how governments could deal with factions: the first method suggests that government removes the reasons, which evoked the fraction existence by making people believe in one thing; the second method is associated with neutral government, which is supposed to control the effects of factions’ activities (Mills). Such social regime implies government tolerance of citizens’ adverse interests and views. According to Mills, the main task of ‘sufficiently neutral’ government is supposed to be the promotion of democracy, control and restriction of dominating factions’ invasion into other communities (Mills). Conclusions The main question of the article is about the role and influence of government in human life. Even in our modern democratic world, there is no common consent about the extent to which government could or should intervene in social activities without putting any restrictions on human freethinking. We assume the Mills’ arguments against church and state consolidation are relevant and support his point of view about importance of establishing ‘sufficiently neutral’ government, which would interfere into social and personal life of citizens to acceptable extent and

Segmented Marketing and Branding Big Mac Research Paper

Segmented Marketing and Branding Big Mac - Research Paper Example This paper focuses upon Big Mac, a hamburger which was introduced by McDonald’s in Pennsylvania in the year 1967 with a selling price of 45 cents. It was promulgated on a national scale in 1968. The burger was created to contend with Big Boy sandwich, a similar type of item with a bread slice in between with the purpose of holding together the stuffing and averting spill out. Over the years, it has become a signature product of the company with an exceptional brand name. It consists of two layers of beef patties merged with molten cheese and mouth watering sauce along with an onion and munch of pickle, served together in a delicious three division sesame seed bun. Iceberg Lettuce is also a core ingredient of the burger. The Big Mac is popular all over the world and is often regarded as an icon of American capitalism. In fact, the Big Mac Index is used as an indicative factor for contrasting the cost of living in countries around the world since its availability is common. This index is also considered to be Burgernomics. There exist several branding theories which identify brand as a unique feature of value proposition of a company. A branding promotion initiates with the development of a value proposition and relies on inspired apparatus along with a combination of consistency, continuity and commitment. The brand of Big Mac, ever since its establishment, has not looked back. It has been able to build its reputation not only in the United States but across 119 countries in the world. The brand of Big Mac is not just a name or a symbol. It has become a vital component of the relationship which McDonald’s has established with its consumers. For the consumers of McDonald’s in general, Big Mac, as a brand, has set its place in the hearts and minds of the consumers. For any brand, its real value exists in its ability and power to retain customer’s brand loyalty by influencing their preferences. The brand strategy of Big Mac has been so s uccessful that it has been thriving in the market as the leading hamburger choice for quite sometime. Being a powerful brand in its own domain, the brand equity of Big Mac is significant. It has been able to develop a positive differential effect upon its consumers and consequently, create a value for itself among people in different continents. McDonald’s have always made use of Big Mac’s classical taste and enriched quality in setting up its Brand Positioning. In this manner, the company has been able to devise such a competitive combination attributes, benefits, beliefs and values for the brand Big Mac that they have been able to develop the image of it in the minds of their consumers in the manner in which they wanted. Likewise, another core brand strategy

Listening Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Listening - Essay Example In my opinion, this goes hand in hand with listening. Listening to what the client is saying shows that you are interested and hence elevates the chances of success. Sales people are required to possess effective communication skills such that they are able to communicate audibly to a customer and subsequently listen attentively. This paper describes the ‘why’ and ‘how’ listening is one of the most important components of successful salesmanship in the context of the residential renovation industry. There are various ways that a good salesman can adopt the skills of becoming a good listener. To become a better listener, a salesman is advised to first pay attention and listen to the other person before talking, exercise tolerance, persistence, and shun complains. In the modern world, the residential renovation industry has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry. In general, listening has its importance in business communication. It is a key factor of prod uctivity and success in an institution. Listening is important in the establishment of effective and successful associations and relations within the workplace. This is also applicable in the residential renovation industry. Through listening, a salesman is able to establish a relationship or association with the customer. Listening makes it easier for the salesman to converse with the client as s/he is able to comprehend issues effectively. Salesmen are advised to ensure that they develop their listening abilities through offering their complete concentration to their clients and retain eye contact with the client (Green 98). Consequently, a salesman is advised to seek clarification of the statement or arguments brought forward by the client to ensure effective comprehension. A salesperson in the residential renovation industry is ought to listen to the client genuinely and openly. S/he is ought to consider the fact that the whole process is client based, so every attention should be focused towards the client. Listening to the need s of the clients ensures that all renovation work or sale conducted on behalf of the client meets his/her requirements. To elucidate the ‘how’ to listen, Green posits that: Active listeners have a good perspective of, and a strong handle on, paraphrasing, restating, summarizing, responding to nonverbal messages, and responding to feelings. These active listening techniques enable salespeople to hold three important things in their grasp. Listening results in a better understanding of what prospects are saying, listening causes a greater flow of information from prospects, and is the basis for tailoring a sales approach that matches the prospect (97). Listening makes it possible for a salesperson to grasp information and details presented by the client that are beneficial in establishing and putting forward resolutions geared towards benefiting the organization dealing with residential renovation services. This is attr ibuted to the fact that through listening, a salesman has a chance to identify and ascertain the feelings and thought of a particular customer on a particular issue of activity. The information gathered by the salesperson can subsequently be incorporated in chatting the way forward to meet the requirements of the client. Listening helps both the client and the salesperson to build conviction and confidence towards each other. Subsequently, listening helps the salesperson to

Explain and discuss the golden rule of accumulation and assess the Essay

Explain and discuss the golden rule of accumulation and assess the implications for macroeconomic policy - Essay Example All such factors are considering by policy makers while implementing macroeconomic policies for the country. The savings investment behavior of the economy can be captured through neoclassical economics including the golden rule of accumulation. The golden rule is adopted to move towards optimum consumption. The golden rule determines the desired level of savings since under this level all profits are saved and then reinvested (Baumgartner and Meredith, 1995, p.6). Thus the current paper tends to discuss the golden rule of accumulation and its implications for macroeconomic policies. The production function of a country depicts how the country utilizes the available resources and inputs for producing output. Land, labor, capital and organization are termed as factors of production. We mainly use capital (K) and labor (L) as the two factors. It is given as, Equally important as production is the concept of consumption which is the difference between income and savings. The consumption function depicts the relation between consumption and disposable income (Consumption Function). It is given as, Attainment of steady state means that an economy has gained stability. A country has attained steady state either due to increase or decrease in growth. It occurs when production rates or the country’s investment equals depreciation. Such a phenomenon is shown in the diagram below: B B depreciation (ÃŽ ´k) Here it is seen that under the steady state output labor ratio becomes stagnant as investment becomes equal to depreciation at point A. production function determines the output- labor ratio at point B. Away from A the economy is converging towards steady state. Under the steady state the government requires to choose that level of

Midterm Essay Essay Example for Free

Midterm Essay Essay As a ruler in the Warring States period, my kingdom’s survival has the utmost importance. Therefore, choosing a philosophy to base my government upon is a crucial decision. Legalism, Confucianism, Mohism, and Daoism are all great philosophies but for my state, I choose to implement Legalism. Legalism supports a rigid system based on publicized laws that deals out punishments and rewards accordingly. Legalism also emphasis an adherence to laws and customs, obedience to the ruler and receiving influential positions based on merit. Legalism as a national strategy of governance is crucial in times of chaos and constant fighting. For my  kingdom I demand absolute obedience from my subjects. I want officials who are qualified by my side to help me make important decisions. I do not want a government full of family members and friends who do not have the credentials for the position. Also I believe everyone should be punished according to the law and there should be no special treatments for the nobles. Everyone is equal under the law in my state. I want to conquer neighboring lands and become the ruler of a unified China. Legalist ideas support my goals for conquest, wealth and a well- functioning government and that is why I choose to implement Legalism in my state. The main ideas of Legalism are to lengthen the rule of the ruler. To further the interest of the ruler, a ruler’s adoption of the Legalism was associated with a tight control of society. Secondly, Legalism emphasized the usage of incentives to govern. Thirdly, Legalism emphasized the usage of institutions in inducing desired behavior because the Legalists believed human nature was inherently bad. As an individual could not be trusted, Legalists paid much attention to the design of institutions to prevent undesirable things from happening. Fourth, in terms of foreign relations, the Legalism school encouraged the building of a strong army. For rulers trying to survive the competition among states, Legalism is more practical and can be implemented more easily than other schools of thought during the Warring State period. 1 For my state, I would employ Han FeiZi’s form of Legalism. His ideas are centered on a COMBINATION OF â€Å"FA † ? (LAW), â€Å"SHU ? † (METHOD) AND â€Å"SHI ? † (POWER). BEFORE HAN FEIZI, LEGALIST PHILOSOPHERS SUCH AS SHANG YANG ONLY STRESSED ON FA ? , SHEN BUHAI ONLY STRESSED ON â€Å"SHU ? †, WHILE SHEN DAOQIANG ONLY STRESSED ON â€Å"SHI ? †. 2 HAN FEIZI BELIEVED THAT â€Å"FA †? , â€Å"SHU ?† and â€Å"Shi ? † should all be implemented together. If only â€Å"Shu ? † is taken into practice and â€Å"FA † ? IS NEGLECTED, PEOPLE HAVE NO REASON TO FOLLOW THE LAW. IF â€Å"FA † ? IS BEING IMPLEMENTED then this can bring the state wealth and power but without â€Å"Shu ? † the regime will not be able to maintain its ruling and without â€Å"Shi ? †, a ruler will not be able to exercise order or rule efficiently. Therefore it is important to implement all three ideas together to bring peace and stability to the kingdom. â€Å"FA † ? (LAW) In Legalism, law is used as a standard for judgment on whether a certain behavior is appropriate, inappropriate, right or wrong. Thus, all human behavior has to be confined within the boundaries set forth by the law. A Legalist type of law does not recognize the people’s needs but instead, everyone’s needs and interests will be based according to the standard of law. Legalism also stresses the importance publicizing laws so people can know and follow them. This will bring order and justice to the state. In a Legalist state everyone is equal before the law and the system 1 Ivanhoe, P. J. , and Van Norden Bryan W. Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy. New York: Seven Bridges, 2001. Print 2 Ivanhoe, P. J. , and Van Norden Bryan W. Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy. New York: Seven Bridges, 2001. Print of â€Å"rewards and punishments† does not care about social status, family background but instead deals out punishments and rewards accordingly. Those who contribute to the state will be rewarded, while those who violate the law will be punished. 3 â€Å"Shu ? † (Method) Shu is a bureaucratic model of administration to aid the ruler and help prevent corruption and incompetence. It is also a political method or tactic used by a ruler to effectively control officials and subjects. Han FeiZi believed that a ruler must utilize â€Å"Shu ? †in order to identify loyal officials from disloyal subjects. This will help the ruler consolidate power and strength in order to control his subjects effectively Han FeiZi urged rulers to control officials and subjects by the two â€Å"handles† of punishment and favor. 4 An official’s accomplishments must neither be greater than nor less than their assigned duties. A minster is always held accountable for his and his subordinate’s actions. Also the ruler must not allow people to know his thoughts and should be suspicious of everyone. In doing so, the ruler can prevent takeovers and rebellions for his  position. 5 â€Å"Shi ? † (Power) 3 Mo, Di, Xunzi, Fei Han, and Burton Watson. Basic Writings of Mo Tzu, Hs? n Tzu, and Han Fei Tzu. New York: Columbia UP, 1967. Print. 4 Ivanhoe, P. J. , and Van Norden Bryan W. Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy. New York: Seven Bridges, 2001. 323. Print 5 Mo, Di, Xunzi, Fei Han, and Burton Watson. Basic Writings of Mo Tzu, Hs? n Tzu, and Han Fei Tzu. New York: Columbia UP, 1967. Print. In Legalism, power is an important part of governance. If a ruler does not wield any power then the law becomes a superficial notion and method will be useless. In order to ruler over a kingdom, the leader has to possess power. In Legalism, power should be employed within the confines of law in order to maximize its usage. If the law is ignored in order to exercise power, then this kind of power can easily lead to chaos and turmoil. Power is not inherently good or evil but the person who wields it can be a moral or immoral person. It is important to employ â€Å"FA † ? AND â€Å"SHI ? † TOGETHER BECAUSE IF A RULER HAS NO POWER THEN THE LAW CANNOT BE ENFORCED which makes a superficial ruler but if one has power but is not constrained by law, this can lead to an abuse of power that can bring harm to society. 6 BY EMPLOYING ALL THREE TENANTS OF â€Å"FA †? , â€Å"SHU ? †AND â€Å"SHI ? †, LEGALISM CAN BRING STABILITY AND peace to my state. I would employ Legalism in my state because it can help expand the population of my kingdom by uniting the warring factions and states under my control. According to Legalist ideals hereditary titles must be abolished and only those who have merit should hold government positions. This means I should not employ family members and friends because they can influence my decisions on a personal level. This can eliminate corruption and  cronyism from my kingdom. 7 Next by creating strict laws for the citizens to follow will foster obedience through punishments and favors. 8 According to Legalist scholars, to expand my state’s population I should also focus on agriculture and the military which will to a surplus of food and 6 Mo, Di, Xunzi, Fei Han, and Burton Watson. Basic Writings of Mo Tzu, Hs? n Tzu, and Han Fei Tzu. New York: Columbia UP, 1967. Print. 7 De Bary, William Theodore, Irene Bloom, and Joseph Adler. Sources of Chinese Tradition, Vol. 1. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. Print. 197. 8 De Bary, William Theodore, Irene Bloom, and Joseph Adler. Sources of Chinese Tradition, Vol. 1. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. Print. 196 help create stronger warriors. This will allow for more conquests and military campaigns. By investing state resources into agriculture, famines can be prevented and populations will grow. 9 Also a mandatory military service for a short time will help my kingdom fight against the barbarians from the west. 10. Finally, increasing the military can also prevent invasions and help my state conquer lands, thus leading to an increase in population as well. Another reason I would employ Legalism because it can also help increase the wealth in my state. The increase in food will help increase trade of agricultural products like millet and wheat as well as other products like plums, apricots, dates, melons, persimmons, beef and pork. Through military conquests an increase of natural resources, tax revenue and workers will help strength the state economy. Lastly, the creation of strict laws with emphasis on collective responsibility will help prevent people from violating the laws. Other philosophies have merits that could help me govern my state. The main ideas of Confucianism are to establish a harmonic society, rather than to promote the interests of the ruler. Second, the Confucianism school does not encourage the usage of material incentives and opposed the usage of severe punishments to rule. To motivate individual behavior, moral obligations were emphasized. 11 Third, the Confucianism school did not value institutions in inducing desirable behavior and that human nature is inherently good. Fourth, in terms of foreign relations, Confucianism discouraged a state’s invasion of other states. Confucianism argued that 9 Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. The Cambridge Illustrated History of China. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Print. 52. 10 Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. The Cambridge Illustrated History of China. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Print. 40. 11 Ivanhoe, P. J. , and Van Norden Bryan W. Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy. New York: Seven Bridges, 2001. 323. Print by following the guidance of li, a humane ruler would induce residents in other states to accept the rule of the humane ruler voluntarily. Relying on military force as a defense would be inferior  and would be unnecessary for a state. 12 To expand the population of my state, Confucianism recommends cultivating goodness (ren) as well as maintaining ritual propriety (li) so I become the most righteous ruler in the land. When a ruler is righteous, his subjects perform righteous tasks down to the common man and people from other lands shall visit my state. 13 This would increase my kingdom’s population. To increase the wealth of my state, Confucian scholars would recommend returning to the traditional Zhou tax system of the 10% tithe. 14 This will allow farmers to have enough grain to  reduce famines and allow more trade to be conducted when there is an excess of products. Confucians would not endorse a state that seeks profit over goodness because goodness (ren) is more desirable for a Confucian gentleman (junzi). When a ruler decides that profit is worth more than virtues, his subjects begin to look for profits as well and ignore virtues, thus leading to gradual corruption within the state. 15 I would not employ Confucianism in my state because while cultivating goodness and being a gentleman is an honorable task, I am only interested in 12 Slingerland, Edward Gilman. â€Å"Kongzi (Confucius) ‘The Analects. ’† In Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy, 1-58. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. , 2005. Print. 13 Slingerland, Edward Gilman. â€Å"Kongzi (Confucius) ‘The Analects. ’† In Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy, 1-58. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. 2005. Print. 14 Slingerland, Edward Gilman,† Kongzi (Confucius) ‘The Analects. † In Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy. 1-58. Indianapolis, IH: Hackett Publishing Company Inc. 2005. Print 15 De Bary, William Theodore, Irene Bloom, and Joseph Adler. Sources of Chinese Tradition, Vol. 1. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. 115. Print. increasing my kingdom’s wealth, population and status. Legalist scholars say it would be hard to reduce the tax to 10% and should be kept at a 20% tithe in order to have enough currency and supplies to supply a growing army. Also the selection of government officials through recommendations valued by Confucianism led to high level of corruption. High positions of the government were monopolized by individuals with strong family backgrounds and capable individuals with weak family backgrounds could not get high rank positions. 16 To reduce  corruption in my kingdom, I should abolish hereditary titles and promote through merit so there would be fairness in my government and less bribery and dishonesty. 17 Another philosophy that has gained momentum and fame is Daoism. Daoism is centered on the ideas of wu (emptiness) and wuwei (non-doing). It also places importance on Yin and Yang. Daoism promotes the idea that material items will not satisfy a person’s soul, leading to lifelong emptiness and competition. 18 Daoism also endorses the idea of non-doing but this does not mean to do nothing at all. It simply means that we must not interfere with the natural course of things. The practice of non-action will lead to spiritual harmony with the Tao. Daoism explains the true path to happiness is to throw away all desires so people will not become selfish or corrupt, throw away concepts of justice and morality so people will do the right thing and throw away profit so people will not become thieves. 19 16 17 De Bary, William Theodore, Irene Bloom, and Joseph Adler. Sources of Chinese Tradition, Vol. 1. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. 197. Print. 18 Ivanhoe, P. J. , and Van Norden Bryan W. Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy. New York: Seven Bridges, 2001. 323. Print 19 Laozi, and Jonathan Star. Tao Te Ching: The New Translation from Tao Te Ching: The Definitive Edition. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2008. Print. Daoist ideas would not help me achieve my goals of increases in population, wealth or uniting the warring states under my control. Daoist scholars would argue that the population does not need to be bigger than it already is. The sage Laozi has said that a state should be small and the people few so that they will have fewer ambitions and acquire less wealth, keeping them happy without the excess of material possessions. 20 Daoist’s would also be against increasing state wealth because in doing so, it will tempt people with desires of wealth and that will lead to corruption in the state. 21 Daoist scholars would encourage me to do nothing and allow things to go their way naturally which is the concept of wuwei. Daoism would be against war and trying to unify the states under my rule. I would not employ Daoism because it does not help me achieve my goals of a great kingdom. I want to go on war campaigns to conquer lands and have control over my kingdom. Allowing people freedom to do whatever they want will lead of instability and  I cannot have that in my state. In times of turmoil, it is a foolish thing to try and bring peace by doing nothing. Other states will invade my kingdom if any signs of weakness show. It is better to strengthen the people with military training and values so that they can protect their homes and the state from barbarians, and invading armies. 22 This is why I would not employ the use of Daoism in my kingdom. The last school of thought I considered employing in my kingdom is Mohism. Mohists are the main rivals to Confucians in promoting a way of life centered on moral teachings. 20 De Bary, William Theodore, Irene Bloom, and Joseph Adler. Sources of Chinese Tradition, Vol. 1. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. 94 Print. 21 De Bary, William Theodore, Irene Bloom, and Joseph Adler. Sources of Chinese Tradition, Vol. 1. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. 80 Print. 22 Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. The Cambridge Illustrated History of China. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010. 52. Print. Mohists rejected rituals and music that is central to Confucian beliefs, seeing them as wasteful and pointless. Mohists endorsed moral practices that promote the welfare of all. Mohists sought a way to restore order (zhi) to human society. 23 The Mohists saw people as naturally good, and thus concerned about their family and community, and generally ? committed to doing what they take to be morally right. But if people fail to distinguish right from wrong properly because of a lack of proper education and political leadership, conflicts will arise, leading to disorder. 24 To prevent disorder Mohists want everyone to follow a unified moral code. Ideally, this project would be carried out through a government administered by wise, virtuous leaders, who at each level of  the state hierarchy would teach everyone to draw moral distinctions in the same way. This way everyone would have the same moral standards and conduct themselves in similar ways by knowing what is right or wrong. 25 To accomplish my goals in attaining wealth and population increases, Mohists scholars would want to promote officials by merit as well and would want to eliminate the rites that Confucians endorse. If I employ the able and worthy, my kingdom will attract virtuous people. 26 Mohists would not want to engage in wars, but would extend the concept of universal love (jian 23 Mo, Di, Xunzi, Fei Han, and Burton Watson. Basic Writings of Mo Tzu, Hs? n Tzu, and Han Fei Tzu. New York: Columbia UP, 1967. Print. 24 Ivanhoe, P. J. , and Van Norden Bryan W. Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy. New York: Seven Bridges, 2001. 323. Print 25 Mo, Di, Xunzi, Fei Han, and Burton Watson. Basic Writings of Mo Tzu, Hs? n Tzu, and Han Fei Tzu. New York: Columbia UP, 1967. Print. 26 De Bary, WilliamTheodore, Irene Bloom, and Joseph Adler. Sources of Chinese Tradition, Vol. 1. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. 67. Print. ai). 27 Mohists believe if a noble king rules by partiality and is malevolent towards his neighboring states; other states will want to destroy his kingdom. If however, he rules by universality and is benevolent towards the other states, then other states will hold him in high regard. I would not employ Mohism in my state because I do not care about universal love or benevolence or morality. My goals for the kingdom are purely political and economic based. I want to be remembered in history for being the ruler of the strongest, largest and most wealthy state. During times of turmoil a strong military and cunningness is needed in order overcome the other states. 28  Legalism is the best choice for my state because it promotes a highly structured society. This can prevent instability and internal conflicts. Also by promoting a system of government based on merit, it eliminates corruption and unqualified people from participating in government. Confucianism allows for too much corruption because mostly nobles dominate the government. Daoism advocates non-doing and peace but that is exactly the opposite of what I want for my kingdom. Doing nothing can lead to instability because there is no structure and everyone can do whatever they please. Lastly Mohism places too much emphasis on morals and peace. To maintain a kingdom, the ruler has to make the state ready to invade other states and for invasions as well. To survive in this period of chaos and wars, only the strong survive. Legalism provides the structure I need to rule my kingdom ruthlessly and effectively. 27 De Bary, William Theodore, Irene Bloom, and Joseph Adler. Sources of Chinese Tradition, Vol. 1. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. 70. Print. 28 Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. The Cambridge Illustrated History of China. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010. 52. Print.

How Alcohol Processes Through the Body Essay Example for Free

How Alcohol Processes Through the Body Essay Alcohol is consumed orally and depending on how strong the alcohol, your weight, gender, or you ethnicity determines how fast it travels through your body. Alcohol is classified as a depressant because it slows the body down. It affects your motor skills such as talking and perception. Alcohol travels through the mouth down the esophagus directly into the stomach. There it is absorbed into the stomach and travels into the bloodstream. According to For Dummies.com says that a majority of the alcohol you drink is absorbed in the small intestine then goes to a large blood vessel leading directly to the liver. For Dummies.com states,† The normal, healthy liver can process about 1/2 ounce of pure alcohol (that’s 6 to 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1 ounce of spirits) in an hour. The rest flows on to your heart.† Your heart contracts less when alcohol is in your system, lowering your blood pressure. Alcohol then flows through your hearts bloodstream to your lungs. Alcohol can be smelled on your breath now, taking a breathalyzer test determines your BAL. For example, speech and the ability to walk are impaired the more you drink. Your vision may become blurred as well. Alcohol abused for a lengthy period of time can be fatal to the body. According to WebMD.com excessive drinking can lead to cancer, cardiovascular disease, cirrhosis, anemia, depression, dementia, seisures, gout, high blood pressure, nerve damage, infectious disease, and pancreatitis. Alcohol abuse has costs that do not just drain your wallet, but your entire life.

What Is New Public Management?

What Is New Public Management? New Public Management, what is it? We have heard the term throughout the first semester and have endeavoured to understand its historical and present relevance as well as its various facets that are supposedly favourable in reforming inefficient public sector enterprises, making them leaner and more efficient. But is New Public Management, all that it is made up to be, is it up-to the tasks it is set, is it the new paradigm for public sector reform in developing countries? These are the questions well be tackling in this paper. The Wikipedia defines New public management (NPM) as a management philosophy used by governments since the 1980s to modernise the public sector. It is a broad and very complex term used to describe the wave of public sector reforms throughout the world since the 1980s. The main hypothesis in the NPM-reform wave is that more market orientation in the public sector will lead to greater cost-efficiency for governments, without having negative side effects on other objectives and considerations.  [i]   The World Bank group thinks that NPM is used to describe a management culture that emphasizes the centrality of the citizen or customer, as well as accountability for results. It also suggests structural or organizational choices that promote decentralized control through a wide variety of alternative service delivery mechanisms, including quasi-markets with public and private service providers competing for resources from policymakers and donors. NPM does not claim that government should stop performing certain tasks. Although the New Public Management often is associated with this policy perspective, NPM is not about whether tasks should be undertaken or not. It is about getting things done better.  [ii]   It is supposed to have evolved as a consequence of the emergence of globalisation and as a response to policies of structural adjustment. NPM was conceived as a means to improve efficiency and responsiveness to political principals. Its origins were in Parliamentary democracies with curiously strong executive powers, centralized governments, and little administrative law. In this archetypal setting, NPM seems to embody the idea of a cascading chain of contracts leading to a single (usually Ministerial) principal who is interested in getting better results within a sector portfolio over which he or she has significant and relatively unchallenged authority.  [iii]   NPM, is a much more outcome oriented and efficient theory than earlier public management theories because it entails a more judicious disbursement of the public budget. It is supposed to be achieved by applying some attributes of the private sector into the public sector, such as competition etc. it can be said to be a policy to run the public sector as though it was the private sector but keeping public sector considerations in mind at the same time. The basis of NPM lay in reversing the two cardinal doctrines of progressive public administration (PPA); that is, lessening or removing differences between the public and the private sector and shifting the emphasis from process account-ability towards a greater element of account-ability in terms of results.  [iv]   It endeavours to better the public sector by restructuring, using tactics such as deregulation, decentralisation, promotion of autonomous agencies, output based evaluation, contracting, introduction of competition between agencies and enterprises etc. From the end of the 1970s to the 1990s governments around the world were engaged in widespread and sustained reforms of their public administration. These reforms started in the USA and the United Kingdom, where the Republican and Conservative governments that came to power championed the New Right campaigns for reforms. In New Zealand, however, where the most acclaimed reforms took place, the political force behind them was a Labour government, i.e. a leftist power. The reforms immediately aroused academic interest and research was carried out and theories developed. Perhaps to facilitate academic discourse, the reforms collectively came to be called the new public management (NPM).  [v]   The major driving force behind the reforms was economic stagnation in many countries. The New Right blamed this economic stagnation seen in huge national debts, balance of payment Sowaribi Tolofari problems, high rates of unemployment, underperforming industries, etc. on the excessive scope of governments engagement in business, mediocrity in administrative performance and the lack of accountability, among other things. In addition, there was also new intellectual thinking developing on how public services should be organised and delivered. This was probably because the populace in various countries were now better educated and more sophisticated in their thinking, tastes and demands.  [vi]   New Public Management has been a worldwide phenomenon in some form or other. Democratic regimes in New Zealand, Australia, and the United Kingdom have all implemented some range of reforms consistent with NPM. Malta and Austria have also implemented NPM elements. Each of these initiatives has had some combination of elements including cost cutting, creating of separate agencies or business enterprises to eliminate traditional bureaucracies, separating the purchaser of goods from the provider of those goods, introducing market mechanisms, decentralizing management authority, introducing performance-management systems, moving away from tenure-like civil service systems to contractual and pay-for-performance personnel systems, and increasing use of customer-focused quality improvement systems. Credit for the impetus of these reforms is given to American ideas, particularly the ideas of American public choice economists  [vii]   The philosophy seems to be based in the greatness of private management over public management and therefore suggests that the only logical thing to do is to transfer control to the private sector. Since all government activities cannot be transferred into private hands the theory suggests the next best thing, the application of business management into government. However, public management is different from public administration: the former is derived from commercial operations and is meant to bring about a new mind-set, a new vocabulary and a proliferation of management techniques. It is also meant to debureaucratize government operations and to reduce red tape substantially.  [viii]   If only one element is to be pointed out as characterising the reforms, it would be marketisation. The administration of public services was now benchmarked against private business power should be exercised by those who give the service; the consumer should have choice; the reason to exist should be determined by how well the organisation performs; there should be measures of performance and public accountability. These characteristics were based on certain theories: mainly public choice, transaction cost economics and principal-agent theory.  [ix]   The reforms have majorly been driven by a combination of socio-economic, political and technological factors. One of the similarities between countries going down the NPM route has been the experience of some sort of economic or fiscal crisis, which speeded up these countrys will to streamline their enterprises and cut back costs wherever possible, basically to stabilize their economy any-which way possible. With crisis looming overhead the tenacity of the welfare state came under fire and with it the institutionalised form of state run enterprises. One can say that these reforms are not purely the work of political will, other more sinister external factors were in play. In the case of most developing countries, reforms in public administration and management have been driven more by external pressures and have taken place in the context of structural adjustment programmes. Other drivers of NPM-type reforms include the ascendancy of neoliberal ideas from the late 1970s, the developm ent of information technology, and the growth and use of international management consultants as advisors on reforms. Additional factors, in the case of developing countries, include lending conditionalitys and the increasing emphasis on good governance.  [x]   The literature provides evidence that in many, if not the majority of, developing countries, economic crisis has been by far the most important factor driving the introduction of ambitious reforms in the public sector since the early 1980s. In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) economic and fiscal crises preceded economic reforms, which also triggered public sector management reforms. Many African and Latin American countries suffered from unsustainable external and domestic debts, deteriorating real terms of trade, increasing real interest rates on international financial markets, high inflation, low levels of savings and investment, and shortages of basic consumer goods. More recently, the economic and fiscal crises in the Asian tiger economies have promoted major reforms in the public sectors of countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia and South Korea. Most countries, especially in Africa, had debilitating underlying problems à ³ severe institutional weaknesses, fiscal indiscipline and weak e xternal competitiveness.  [xi]   Larbi describes the economic and fiscal situation that was the harbinger of NPM reforms in Africa and Latin America. He records that many African and Latin American countries suffered unsustainable rates on international financial markets, high inflation, low levels of savings and investments, and shortages of basic consumer goods. It should be noted, however, that in these cases external pressures from so-called donors and lenders initiated the reforms. Kiiza accounts for the effect of this difference by saying that available comparative evidence shows both a handsome and an ugly face of the reforms: The handsome face of managerialism appears in the developed countries where the review of Weberian public administration has been done deliberately in search of excellence. The ugly face appears in the developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, where Managerialism has been religiously spread by the IMF/World Bank fraternity.  [xii]   Internally, in these countries, policy deficiencies, bad and excessive management of the economy, large-scale institutionalized corruption, weak and demoralized public services, low productivity and political instability, all contributed to a worsening of the crises. Loss-making SOEs contributed significantly to budget deficits and thus to the fiscal crisis.  [xiii]   Going first to the IMF and then to the World Bank meant accepting stabilization and structural adjustment packages with their accompanying conditionalitys in order to obtain credits and debt rescheduling from creditor banks and multilateral lending institutions. Policy-based lending by multilateral institutions was used as an instrument to encourage crisis states to embark on reforms that were pro-market and pro-private sector.  [xiv]   Thus it can be said that in a way NPM was stuffed down these nations throats. But the most primary mistake committed was that the policies and the structures utilized in implementing the NPM in these countries were the same that were proven successful in their more developed counterparts. What was not realized or was ignored was that the manner of functioning of the countrys beuracricies their market, the level of development of their private sectors was markedly different from the developed countries and the same ideas were not liable to work here. Despite all its advantages, one of the premier drawbacks of NPM most of the time was its very little contribution to actual policymaking. Instead, seeing as its main emphasis is private sector managerial techniques, it emphasizes the need for fewer thinkers and more doers. However, if one defines success as substantive involvement of citizens in shaping the direction of policy that affects their lives, there is little indication of such involvement beyond what existed before NPM implementation began. As Pollitt (1993) notes, citizenship is an awkward concept for those promoting managerialism, where the term customer is more common. He argues that the collectivist view of citizenship is alien to an individualist model where the market is the chief focus of transactions and values (125-6). Armstrong (1998) notes in his assessment of Australian implementation of NPM that the concept of meeting customer needs ignores the ability of customers to articulate their needs or make choices, either because they are uninformed or do not have the resources to do so . Rhodes further argues that in Australia, there is no evidence to show that (NPM) has provided customers with any means whatever of holding the government to account (1996, 106-10). Those claiming success for NPM have focused on short-term effects and on issues of efficiency. While it may be too early to assess the long-term impact of NPM in countries such as New Zealand and Australia, the evidence supporting democratic accountability and citizen engagement is not encouraging. This concept of management has little to do with democracy and democratic values, shedding the reality or the facade of democracy found in earlier public-sector reforms. What is left is a core of market orientation to economic efficiency in the public sector. As Borgmann (1992) argues, when citizens are recast as consumers, they operate within an attenuated form of democracy: But to extol the consumer is to deny the citizen. When consumers begin to act, the fundamental decisions have already been made. Consumers are in a politically and morally weak position. They are politically weak because the signals that they can send to the authorities about the common order are for the most part ambiguous. Does the purchase of an article signal approval, thoughtlessness, or lack of a better alternative?  [xv]   Dunleavy and Hood (1994) note concerns among traditional bureaucrats or hierarchists about the potential destabilizing effects of NPM if the processes of change should get out of control, become unmanageable and do irreversible damage to the provision of public services. For developing countries, but not for the World Bank and donor agencies, the price to be paid for such policy mistakes may be great in terms of threats to political stability and loss of economic wellbeing. In the United Kingdom, one of the leading exemplars in NPM applications the internal market in the NHS has been criticized as concentrating too many The New Public Management Approach and Crisis States resources on management and paperwork rather than on front-line service provision. This is illustrated by the almost fourfold increase in the number of managers in the NHS between 1991 and 1994, with administration absorbing 10.5 per cent of all NHS costs in 1994, compared to 6 per cent before the reforms. Overall, public sector managers are seen as a gaining group in the managerial emphasis in reforms.  [xvi]   But at the same time NPM will also be causing problems of morale in the public services because of the basic premise of NPM being the superiority of private sector over the public sector. Moreover, because it also suggests that whenever possible its activities should be transferred to the private sector, the implication is that public service has no intrinsic value. It also belittles the noble side of the public-service profession: public servants became public servants because they wanted to serve their country. If they had wanted to become entrepreneurs, they would have joined the private sector or started their own businesses.  [xvii]   Critics of the NPM, lamenting the collapse of the welfare state, have referred to the increasing inequality that market-type mechanisms produce market niche-seeking behaviour by public service providers. Whereby, conditions of social exclusion may be created given the organizational and cultural changes in social provision, expressed in the concepts of markets and individualism. Thus, those who need state provision and welfare safety-nets most viz a viz the poor and the vulnerable will be harmed by such reforms. Accountability and monitoring becomes tougher with fragmentation. Furthermore, since governments and other purchasers struggle to monitor contracts in various provider organisations, there is a risk of incurring huge transaction costs. According to Le Grand and Barlett (1993) quality in service provision may decline since minimalist, economizing standards are replacing aspirational professional standards. The pursuit of efficiency in flawed policies with short-term gains will be encouraged by NPM, undermining states capability to take a continuing standpoint on education, technology, health and the environment, given the heavy emphasis on cost reduction. One needs to consider these issues before seeking to transfer NPM to crisis states.  [xviii]   When assessing NPM critically, it is noted that there might be a promotion of corruption and self-interest by the senior bureaucrats and policy makers, who will opt for contracting out and for privatization in lieu of opportunities for rent-seeking and other forms of misdemeanour. Furthermore, greed, favouritism and conflicting interests in NPM has also piloted in a decline in ethical standards of public life. In case of developing countries, adopting the NPM will lead to more arbitrary use of judgment since the accountability mechanisms are weak and patronage systems more prevalent. The NPM method may work better in some frameworks than others. Like the public service which covers various activities, some of which are person-centred like, education, while some are not. Some are competitive, others are hard to mould into the competitive format, some high technological content (telecommunications), and others low. Thus, these factors should be kept in mind, as they affect the chances of NPM being a good fit in crisis states. Clarke and Newman have also argued that NPM à ¬is often portrayed as a global phenomenon à ³ a core element in the process of convergence between states, overriding distinct political and cultural characteristicsà ®. Given the different and difficult circumstances of reforms in adjusting economies and the potential risks mentioned above, it is doubtful whether a universalistic and à ¬evangelicalà ® approach to NPM is a tenable option. Even in developed countries such as the United Kingdom, experience suggests that change toward NPM à ¬has not been smooth and linear, but uneven and contestedà ® and that social actors are not shaped unambiguously by large-scale trends or forces for change.  [xix]   NPM-related reforms generally might undermine political control, meaning that administrative leaders in the central departments and agencies, such as leaders in public commercial enterprises, are gaining influence, but also private commercial actors and consumers more generally. The reforms have created more skepticism towards collective solutions, a depolitization of the public sector and increasing conflicts over what is public.  [xx]   While there is relatively little NPM to be found in developing countries when compared to the early predictions, there is even less evaluation of NPMs impact. The most comprehensive overview of NPM type reforms is offered by Batley (1999). Summarizing the conclusions from a 5-year review of the changing role of government in adjusting economies in South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and South America, Batley finds that the effect of NPM reforms has been mixed, at best, with some improvements in efficiency and mixed effects on equity. On the downside, he notes that the transaction costs of radical reforms to autonomize service delivery agencies tend to outweigh the efficiency gains of unbundling, and that reforms that seek to separate purchasers from providers sometimes reduce accountability.  [xxi]   Refocusing on the effective state is given prominence in the 1997 World Development Report, The State in a Changing World, which marks a significant shift in thinking about the state and its role in development: the need to factor the state back into development. There is now some recognition by the Bank that reforming the public sector the NPM way does not lend itself to clear, unambiguous solutions. NPM is not a panacea for all problems in the developing economies. conclusion The above-mentioned criticisms of NPM and concerns about social solidity, parity and steadiness have rejuvenated interest in the dynamic role of the state again. The debate has changed. It is how do we re-empower the state so that it is able to do its job effectively. While the new public management method may not be a answer for the problems of public sector management in developing states, a cautious and selective variation of some features to selected areas may be advantageous and their employment needs to be subtle to operative reality. The enthusiasm for neoliberal policies and NPM practices that characterized most of the 1980s and early 1990s is now tempered with caution and, in some cases, rejection of the more extreme forms of the NPM approach. There is recognition that imposing one template of reform on all, irrespective of context, is unwise and unimplementable, and may even breed conflict and undermine stability. The way forward is to make the state work better, not to dismantle it. The Bank suggests two strategies. The first is to match the states role to its capability; the earlier mistake was that the state tried to do too much with few resources and limited capacity. The second approach is to strengthen the capability of the state by reinvigorating public administration institutions to enable them to perform their enabling, regulating, monitoring and co-ordinating roles. This will entail creating effective rules and restraints, encouraging greater competition in service provision, applying measures to monitor performance gains, and achieving a more responsive mix of central and local governance by steering policies in the direction of greater decentralization.  [xxii]   NPM-type reforms in developing states seem to be based on a common framework with those in developed countries and seem to follow a blueprint rather than a process or contingent approach. Yet these countries differ widely in terms of their institutional conditions and their capacity to implement public sector management reforms based on NPM principles and practices.  [xxiii]   There is a need to give consideration to problems of how to implement rather than just what to implement. For some time now, too much attention has focused on the plan content of reforms without suitable attention to suitable preparations for application, partly due to the domination of outside organizations in the design of reform bundles and the resultant dearth of resident ownership and promise to reform.

Lord Of The Flies Response Essays -- essays research papers

Lord of the Flies Response Ben Sherry Civilization 9/10/96 There were a lot of underlying reasons to why the boys' civilization failed in the book The Lord of The Flies. They had many problems with each other because the group was split up among friends. One group would go out and do one thing, while the other group would do another. This led to many more problems, such as deciding and agreeing on a leader, who would do what jobs, and most importantly, which of the boys would become the leader of the crew. Futhermore, the boys all seem to dislike Jack and Roger. This will make it extremely hard for either of them to stop singing. Like my father. So, that eliminates them from the picture. Simon and Rex don't seem to be helping much, and When all the boys met each other on the island, th...

Childhood Poverty Essay -- Poverty Essays

We as Americans are extremely lucky. We live in a big country with many resources and almost all the luxuries we ever wanted. On the flip side, in America there are also many people who do not have these privileges. The lower class is a struggling class. For many years, people have been trying to pull themselves up from the lower class and the majority does not succeed. Childhood poverty is a large problem in the U.S. It is said that the poorest people in the United States are the children of the lower class. Childhood poverty could lead to a number of problems such as hunger, violence, physical and mental disabilities, educational problems, homelessness, family stress, sickness, and too-early parenthood. The sad truth is that living in poverty lowers a child’s chance to grow into a healthy, well-adjusted adult who will contribute to society. The number of people who are classified as the working class poor has increased. It has also been proven that work by itself will not keep a family out of poverty. As for government assistance for families in poverty, it has been decreasing. The government argued that families were not using all the services, which were available to them. In today’s society, the amounts of single-parent households are increasing and this is another reason for the existence of childhood poverty. Statistics show that children living in single-parent homes are five times more likely to be poor. More people are getting divorced and are also having children outside of wedlock. It has also been said that women rather than men head about 90% of single-parent families. One of the reasons why these particular families are so poor is because out of all divorced fathers, only 50% help support the... ...iggest and toughest job of you life†¦parenthood. Along with parenthood comes the largest amount of responsibility anyone has even been faced with. Their job is to raise their children, and show them the world. Everything is brand new to them, and as a parent, they are the ones who will be introducing their children to everything. The last thing any parent would want for their child is to have tem grow up in poverty. Every year we spend so much money to report to the public that there are children living in poverty. Why spend millions of dollars campaigning an issue which his already known worldwide? That money should be taken and used to help people lift their children and themselves out of poverty. Progress will not be made of we are just going to sit their and cry about it. Childhood poverty is a large issue, which has been and still needs to be dealt with.

Circularity and Stability :: Philosophy Philosophical Papers

Circularity and Stability William Alston argues that there is no way to show that any of our basic sources of belief is reliable without falling into epistemic circularity, i.e. relying at some point on premises that are themselves derived from the very same source. His appeal to practical rationality is an attempt to evaluate our sources of belief without relying on beliefs that are based on the sources under scrutiny and thus without just presupposing their reliability. I argue that this attempt fails and that Ernest Sosa’s appeal to the coherence theory of justification fails, too, if it is understood as an attempt to find a similar external evaluation of our sources of belief that does not just assume their reliability. I concluded that there is no alternative to taking an internal view to our own reliability and embracing epistemic circularity. Why suppose that any of the bases on which we regularly and unquestionably form beliefs are reliable? Why suppose that sense perception, in particular, is a reliable source of information of the physical environment? These are questions that William Alston raises in his recent books Perceiving God (1991) and The Reliability of Sense Perception (1993). He argues that there is no way to show that any of our basic sources of belief is reliable without falling into epistemic circularity. There is no way to show that such a source is reliable without relying at some point or another on premises that are themselves derived from that source. So we cannot have any non-circular reasons for supposing that the sources on which we base our beliefs are reliable. Alston thinks, however, that there is a way of evaluating the reliability of our sources of belief that is independent of the beliefs based on those sources and that does not therefore fall into circularity. I will argue that Alston's attempt to find such an external support for our sources of beliefs fails. I will also consider Ernest Sosa's (1994, 1995) most recent attempt to deal with the problem and argue that if it is understood as a related attempt to find an external standpoint from which to evaluate our sources of belief, it fails, too. I will conclude that there is no alternative to a purely internal approach in which we evaluate our sources of beliefs in terms of the beliefs that derive from the very same sources and thus to embracing epistemic circularity.

Heart of Darkness Essay

Kurtz is the man who Marlow searches for through the Congo. Marlow’s search develops into an obsession and when the search has ended, he only finds a shadow of a man that was once Kurtz. Kurtz was a man who had achieved great things in his life, inspiring each person he had come across and was expected to accomplish more. He came into the Congo with great plans for civilizing the natives, however he became greedy, which ended up being the subject of his own demise. ‘I had immense plans†¦ I was on the threshold of great things’. Kurtz’s main characteristics were his ability to talk passionately to people and inspire them with his words. He had a charisma that made people feel that he was some kind of a genius. Kurtz was a very talented human being, gifted in many areas. He could not be pinned down to a specific talent. He was seen as a great musician to his cousin that Marlow visits, a brilliant politician and leader of men to the journalist and a genius and humanitarian to his intended. Marlow views him as a universal genius. Kurtz is a round character, who is explored deeply and at times, almost to deep. He is neither the protagonist nor the antagonist, but he is a complex main character within the novel. In places where Kurtz is described, there is imagery of darkness and foreboding evil. Kurtz was an exaggeration of the white people who had come to Africa for money. Kurtz’s greed for ivory became extreme and even made him violent and aggressive. He was the idea of the self-made man that was the American dream. It was thought that any man could travel and be wealthy materially and spiritually. He was living that dream for a while, before it swallowed him whole. His ego inflated and he believed himself to be a superior being such as God. He let himself be worshipped among the natives and encircled himself with darkness and evil. Hence, his ideals had changed from his journey through Africa. And he soon became one of the natives. Releasing himself from civilization and restraint. When Marlow finally reached Kurtz, Kurtz had become hollow. Kurtz had reached insanity. He was no longer the great man he had once been. ‘He was hollow at the core. ‘ Through conversing with the natives and immersing himself with them, Kurtz lost his restraint, which he had learned through civilization. By taking part in native ceremonial gatherings, he had lost his soul and he had succumbed to darkness. ‘How many powers of darkness claimed him for their own. ‘ The reason for his behaviour was his greed for ivory. He gave up his soul only for the sole purpose of money and success. However, his actions are justified as Marlow expresses that leaving a man in a jungle with nothing but himself and the desire to make money, will make him go mad. Without restraint from his own culture, Kurtz’s basic instincts were released. Kurtz’s appearance had dramatically altered as well. He was extremely thin and had a baldhead; he had also lost the ability to walk. From being a God to the natives, he soon comes to despise them. He sees them as rebels, which is why he has stuck heads on sticks outside his hut. ‘Exterminate the brutes’ In the end, Kurtz dies just after he has come to realize that he has become the heart of darkness. He is an embodiment of evil and he highlights this by saying, ‘The horror! The horror! ‘ Kurtz was an imperialist who was a symbol of colonization, and a symbol of the jungle.