Hoovers policies and attitudes in the years 1929-33 Essay

Asses the view that Hoover’s policies and attitudes in the years 1929-33 merely prolonged the depression. President Herbert Hoover came in to power in America in 1928. He was a man with a strong belief and he believes in individualism and believed passionately in the values of hard work and enterprise. However, he came in power at a time where America was in an economic crisis, where unemployment was shooting up as well as inflation, America had entered a new era where inequality was increasing more than ever for example New York had one million unemployed whereas Ohio has 50% of the population unemployed, thus it was vital for Hoover’s policies to be adequate in order to restore prosperity. Source 7 clearly argues that Hoover’s attitudes and policies were inadequate and â€Å"failed again and again†. Similarly, source 8 believes that his faith in his own policies has only prolonged the depression even more, thus both sources have a clear consensus between them. On the other hand source 9 argues that a lot was actually done in order to get Americans back on their feet, thus Hoover’s attitudes and policies were good for America. However, it is clear that Hoover simply did not do enough in order to deal with this economic crisis as he was seen to be as a very â€Å"stubborn† person as source 7 argues and he simple could not read between the lines. Source 7 describes Hoover as a very stubborn person who â€Å"Remained convinced that he was right† Hoovers attitudes towards agriculture did not help American farmers at all. The agricultural marketing act was established in 1929 which artificially purchased farmers surpluses at prices above the market price. Hoover gave the Federal Farm Board $500M, yet Hoover still not think through exactly what he was doing. The agricultural market was in a significant decline in America during the 1930s and he only encouraged farmers to produce more as the Federal Reserve board was purchasing their surpluses. Furthermore, he was accused of throwing away tax payers money which was extremely regressive. Similarly, source 8 believes that Hoover undertook some â€Å"harmful policies† where he also â€Å"resisted congressional attempts to provide more substantial farm relief† this can be seen through the fact that instead of putting money into farmer’s pockets he actually took it away. Farming was seen as the backbone of the American economy and Hoovers Agricultural Marketing Act seemed like something that was rushed and never thought through which emphasises how Hoover simply lacked knowledge in many areas of the economy. Furthermore, he never thought about agricultural on an international level and the consequences his actions would have, thus his attitudes towards individualism was clearly not applicable to American society at that time as American clearly needed a Keynesian approach towards the economy where money would be significantly pumped in to the circulation of the economy. Source 8 also believes that the Hawley-Smoot Tariff was significantly damaging towards Americans â€Å"which he signed despite the advice of most economists†. This emphasises his attitudes towards his policies, he in his own â€Å"fantasy world† as source 7 also describes as he simple did not have any fixed approach towards fixing the damaged economy. Hoover did not realise exactly what was needed for the American economy as if he did, he would have realised that putting a 40% duty on agricultural products would not have stimulated the economy. This fantasy world consisted of just his own approach, which was not thought through, he believed just because he had a very hard work ethic meant that everyone else could have one too, however, this was not the case in America as Americans simply had no money in their pockets to start them off and they needed relief in order to get back on their feet again. Furthermore, his policies had a very short run effect as he believed by putting tariffs up it would help farmers gain more revenue. However, with agriculture being such a competitive market, it only led to retaliation as countries all across Europe could not afford high prices as they were in an economic crisis too. Furthermore, the Hawley-Smoot tariff resulted in the abandonment of free trade amongst European nations, thus it was extremely damaging for the agricultural market as they could not sell their surpluses and had to eventually dump their goods in different countries, therefore Hoover did pro long the depression. Furthermore, source 8 also argues that Hoovers approach towards unemployment was also not good enough as he â€Å"blocked direct aid to the unemployed†. This is because of his hands off approach attitude that he undertook during the 1930s was not radical enough and could be seen as taking things â€Å"too modestly† as source 8 states. The Emergency Committee for Employment aimed to help agencies provide relief of $500, however, due to his self-reliance attitude he did not allow direct federal relief. This clearly shows how Hoover was not thinking ahead and his attitudes were far behind time as he did not realise exactly how badly Americans needed the governments help and it was crucial to intervene in the economy as much as possible. However, Hoovers $500M was not large enough to help the millions of people in America who were unemployed and did not have the basic necessities in life, growth was literally not possible without the government intervening as GDP was getting lower and lower. However, taking into account that many countries were in a nation debt, it was obviously not possible for Hoover to magically get a large sum of money in order to give relief to firms and other sectors, thus there was actually a limited amount that Hoover could do even though he did have a hands off approach towards America. Source 9 completely contradicts source 8 and 7 as Leuchtenburg believes Hoover â€Å"Stepped up federal construction and urged state and local governments to accelerate spending† thus Hoover did make significant changes that did not pro long the depression. One of his most significant polices was the reconstruction finance corporation which was authorised to lend $1.5 billion to states to finance public works. Not only was this a very direct relief but it also had many benefits as it helped insurance companies as well as banks. One major aspect of the RFC was the fact that it lent 90% to small and medium banks, which was a turning point as rural small banks were hardly ever noticed and no other president intervened the way Hoover did and this contradicts Patterson’s view of Hoover having â€Å"minimal government intervention†, thus his lack of intervention may have been exaggerated by source 7 and 8. The â€Å"increased capital investment† as source 9 suggests also helped the economy as investment was a crucial part of GDP and investment would have allowed firms to innovate in America, thus Hoover had noticed the â€Å"grim reality† of the depression as he was doing what he could have in order to restore the economy. However, the RFC was only available to states that declared bankruptcy and they had to use the money to provide schemes which would earn money so that loans could be repaired and this perfectly fits in with Parrish’s view of how the â€Å"economic crisis required maximum cooperation† , which Hoover was not giving at that time as all banks and businesses needed some sort of relief which he was not doing. Furthermore, even if he was cooperated it was a little too late, thus Hoover did pro long the depression. Overall, it is clear the Hoover’s approaches were not good enough for American society in the 1930s and he did pro long the depression. One vital error that Hoover made was the fact that he was not helping the unemployed as much as he should have as in order to stimulate the economy, a wage was needed and with a wage tax could have been paid which could have been used to fund the public with goods. Therefore, if Hoover had considered getting people into work this would have automatically had a positive knock on effect. Furthermore, a hands off approach was not needed in times of the depression as Americans did not have money to get back on their feet as many banks were not giving out loans due to the effects that the boom period had on them, therefore a lot of intervention was needed. Thus, it is clear that Hoover did make big mistakes during the depression as he did not see the reality of it and did not try to tackle the main problems as he had no detailed plan.

In Twelve Angry Men Rose Shows That Doubt Is an Easier State of Mind Than Certainty Essay

Set in the sweltering summer of 1954, Reginald Rose’s socially insightful play â€Å"Twelve Angry Men†, illustrates the dangers of a justice system that relies on twelve individuals to reach a â€Å"life or death† decision with collective states of minds hindered by â€Å"personal prejudice†. At the conception of the play, rose explores the idea that doubt is a harder state of mind than certainty by portraying doubt, in the guilt of the boy, as a minority view within the courtroom. However, as the play progresses a seed of doubt is planted and the importance of self prejudice hindering the verdict is removed, making it harder for the jurors to hold their certainty in their guilty verdict. At the conception of Twelve Angry Men, Rose exposes the audience to the devastating heat in the jury room which over looks the â€Å"New York sky line† on what is described as â€Å"the hottest day of the the year†. At this stage it is revealed to the audience the apathetic nature of jury members, uninterested in the â€Å"grave responsibility† they have in deciding the fate of the â€Å"16 year old boys life† and more interested with the goal of escaping the plain, oven like jury room. With each juror being blinded by the thick glaze of heat In front of them a verdict of guilty becomes the instinctive state of mind and the room for reasonable doubt is eliminated from all but one. The author, Reginald Rose displays through juror 8 that to be doubtful when challenging a majority becomes a harder state of mind, â€Å"as it’s not easy to stand alone against the ridicule of other† at this moment juror 8 initiates his campaign that we can never be certain about anything, we can only make assumptions based on the information provided. As juror 8’s campaign continues, and the seed of doubt planted into the â€Å"guilty† minded jury members is fertilised thorough the analysing of facts the reasonable doubt slowly grows in the jurors minds, the audience begin to create an understanding that doubt is an easier state of mind than certainty, as to be doubtful you are not accountable to that single view, as we are reminded in the text from juror 8 â€Å"I don’t know whether I believe it or not† parting him from the majority but lowering the conflict, as he is not certain about the innocence of the boy rather not feeling not comfortable to raise his â€Å"hand and send a boy off to die without talking  about it first†, making the doubtful state of mind an easier sense of conscience although a harder sense to preach onto the other jury members who consist of the majority. Towards the conclusion of the play twelve angry men, doubt begins to become an easier state of mind as the persuasion of doubt is created through a range of events that after previously being concrete are now questioned, and the â€Å"not guilty† verdict is now the majority verdict, this releases the oppressively hot environment of the jury room through the delivery of rain, representing a Burst of relief and fresh air for the jurors. Although, Reginald Rose decisively leaves one jury member (3) who is still stuck in the train of personal prejudice and believes the kid â€Å"knifed his father 6 inches into the chest†. Juror 3s certain state of mind portrays him as the villain of twelve angry men, a man who is blinded by his own personal outside influences and is illustrated as a stubborn man with no â€Å"integrity† when defending his view of â€Å"guilty†, this shows that his state of mind being â€Å"guilty† now becomes the harder state of mind as he is left as the minority, and could not separate personal prejudice when dealing with the fate of another’s life, effecting his judgement. After juror 3 finally splits his relationship between his son and the 16 year old boy on trial a â€Å"not-guilty† verdict is delivered to the judge. Reginald Rose shows his intended audience at the conception of the film that doubt is the harder state of mind as juror 8 views on the boy and trial is challenging the majority, although throughout the progression of the play, not one juror member is able to hold his certainty, making doubt an easier state of mind as they do not have to hold a certain point of view and are not accountable to that single certain view.

Analysis of Dickens’ use of irony, satire and humour in Oliver Twist Essay

There are multiple examples throughout Oliver Twist of irony, satire and humour. Although a dark novel, there are many moments of humour and an extraordinary amount of chuckling, giggling and knee-slapping by characters. Each of the literary techniques of humour, irony and satire, employed by Dickens help add focus and depth on the various conflicts between the novels outcasts and its established society. It is impossible to cover all avenues within Oliver Twist that might be considered as humorous, satirical or ironic but some of the more obvious and important examples of each will now be discussed. There is ambiguous humour in conflicts between the institution and the individual found throughout Dickens’ Oliver Twist. An example of this coming early in the second chapter when Oliver is told that â€Å"the board has said he has to appear before it forthwith1†, the humour here comes in Oliver’s ignorance of â€Å"not having a very clearly defined notion of what a live board was† and on entering the room of â€Å"eight to ten fat gentlemen† he is told to â€Å"bow to the board†, â€Å"seeing no board but the table, he fortunately bowed to that†. Oliver’s ignorance here is both humorous and sad, as it underpins his youthful ignorance and helplessness in the face of his situation which is very much out of his control. There are many examples where Dickens juxtaposes humour and ridicule with aggression and cruelty; one example being the introduction of Mr. Gamfield in chapter three, who was â€Å"alternately cudgelling his brains and his donkey2†, this gives rise to laughter on the part of the audience and also gives, in my opinion, an impression of Gamfield as ridiculous or as a fool. Soon after we are told that he gave the donkeys jaw â€Å"a sharp wrench†, and â€Å"another blow on the head, just to stun him till he came back again†, this portrayal of him as aggressive and violent is juxtaposed with the fool implied earlier. The â€Å"cudgelling† that was once used humorously is now replaced by its more aggressive definition, â€Å"short, thick stick used as a weapon3† This dichotomy between humour and aggression is used repeatedly by  Dickens and in my opinion forces the audience to never fully feel comfortable in laughing at situations as we are never truly sure if this situation or character will soon show a darker side. Later in the scene between Gamfield and the board, the use of laughter as a weapon and inextricably linked to aggression and violence is again shown when he tells the board: â€Å"Boys is wery obstinit, and wery lazy gen’lmen, and there’s nothink like a good hot blaze to make ’em come down with a run. It’s humane too, gen’lmen, acause, even if they’re stuck in the chimbley, roasting their feet makes ’em struggle to hextricate theirselves†2 Our laughter here is one of incredulousness and some revolt at Gamfields brutal account of his treatment of boys. This puts the audience in the uncomfortable position of the board because we are like the â€Å"gentleman in the white waistcoat† who â€Å"appeared very much amused by his explanation.† This juxtaposition of humour and brutality puts the audience in the uncomfortable position of being able to put itself in the position of the more brutal and vicious characters in Oliver Twist while also allowing us to sympathise and empathise with Oliver and dislike those responsible for their maltreatment. The humour in the famous scene where Oliver asks for more can be seen in the masters somewhat extreme to a trivial event. We are told he â€Å"gazed in stupefied astonishment† and â€Å"clung for support to the copper†. This extreme reaction to such a small request while humorous in and of itself serves a greater purpose in showing the appalling situation and impoverished position this orphan boy, Oliver Twist found himself in. The fact that to ask for â€Å"more† then the meagre â€Å"supper allotted by the dietary† could cause such a reaction from the master and cause the gentleman in the white waistcoat to say, â€Å"that boy will be hung†¦I know that boy will be hung†, although amusing in its extreme reaction, this also serves to pointedly shed light on the dire situation for those orphaned and in state ‘care’ at the time, who encountered brutality and apathy at every turn. Another example of laughter in Oliver Twist is in the naming of the characters; ‘Master Charles Bates’, often referred to as ‘Master Bates’ is a very clear pun that is most definitely not lost on the audience. The mere mention of his name evokes a smirk and laughter from the audience. The naming of the character of the Beadle as ‘Mr. Bumble’ is also for comic effect in my opinion. The Oxford English Dictionary defines bumble as to ‘move or act in an awkward or confused manner; speak in a confused or indistinct way.’ Like that of Master. Bates, the image evoked by the name â€Å"Bumble† is one of ridicule, a fool or idiot but Mr. Bumbles behaviour throughout the book does not make him a sympathetic foolish character, instead his consistent brutality, viciousness and violent nature lends him to become one of the villains of the story. However his naming by Dickens is not only a source of humour but also of irony. It is ironic t hat Mr. Bumble is incapable of seeing Oliver’s situation correctly and is easily fooled by those he believes are inferior. Dickens’ Oliver Twist is laden with irony. The opening chapters exemplify this when Oliver cries himself to sleep and Dickens sarcastically exclaims, â€Å"What a novel illustration of the tender laws of England! They let the paupers go to sleep!1† This irony is effective in showing the discontinuity between the various classes in Victorian London, better than simply stating the conditions present at the time. The scene where Oliver asks for more gruel is also ironic in that the helpless starving orphan, only trying to improve his situation in life, is treated incredulously and punished by the healthy and well-feed board members who in reality should be the ones who are punished for their treatment of the poor. Another form of irony Dickens uses is in showing the duplicitous nature of the society in Victorian London at the time. The upper class found on the board, believe Mrs. Mann to be a great caretaker of the orphans, however when viewed from the position of the lower class perspective of the orphans themselves, she is greedy and abusive. Again this duplicity and irony can be seen when Oliver is presented to the Board and begins to cry, a reaction that should be understandable to anyone, because he is a scared, nine year old boy, alone, in a room full of daunting adults, not knowing what to expect, however the board cannot understand this and one questions, â€Å"What are you crying for?†¦And to be sure it was very extraordinary. What could the boy be crying for?†1 The members of the board really have no understanding of why Oliver could be crying, believing they have provided him with everything he could need and a luxurious home in the workhouse. They have no understanding or sympathy for the situation of the poor people of London as shown when Dickens states that: â€Å"When they [the board members] turn their attention to the workhouse, they found out at once, what ordinary folks would never have discovered – the poor people liked it! It was a regular place of public entertainment for the poorer classes; a tavern where there was nothing to pay†1 There are multiple examples of social and political satire throughout Oliver Twist. It is a satirical attack of the way in which predestined social class and poverty affects the outcomes of a person’s life and a protest by Dickens against the Poor Law and the Workhouse system of the time. The overlooked manner in which Oliver’s birth is described provokes compassion in the audience. He â€Å"breathed, sneezed, and proceeded to advertise to the inmates of the workhouse the fact of a new burden having being imposed upon the parish†. It is dark and ironic; Oliver is depicted as a troublesome burden upon the parish and society. From the outset his entrance into the world is despised, the antithesis of what a child’s birth should elicit. His life is condemned from the beginning by the ugliness of the world he has been born into and his social standing is imprinted upon him, he is a â€Å"humble, half-starved drudge – to be cuffed and buffeted through th e world – despised by all, and pitied by none†3 and reaffirmed in the second chapter when the gentleman in the white waistcoat exclaims â€Å"that boy will be hung† Oliver is the vehicle employed by Dickens to display the inadequacies within society. He highlights society’s various injustices. Through the use of  Oliver, the vulnerable of society are given a voice. The characters that Oliver encounters each represent a different corrupted socio-political aspect prevalent in the society of the time. Mrs Mann and Mr Bumble both highlight the hypocrisy and perversion of the Poor Law and the Workhouse system, while Fagin is created as a representation of greed and materialism. It is clear that Dickens employs irony, satire and humour to great effect in Oliver Twist, and does so in a manner that is not as straightforward as might originally seem. His use of irony and humour as a weapon shows clearly the maltreatment of the poor at the hands of the upper classes and serves to both amuse the audience and make it uncomfortable in laughing along with the unfair and improper situations that are being portrayed. The satire used by Dickens, although an exaggeration, exposes the ridiculousness and impropriety of the society being described and may also act as a true representation of the effects of the Poor Law and the workhouse system of the time.

Explicate descartes inference from sence exprience to the existence of Assignment

Explicate descartes inference from sence exprience to the existence of material substance - Assignment Example His original plan was to depict vast understanding of cerebral science from a legitimate source overlooking any theories of the body. Under compatibility, Descartes split the globe into two distinct material substances (mind and body) with science focusing on body and religion on mind/soul. Naturally, the rationality of a philosophy lies on elements such as the source of knowledge and correlation between the key subjects (Cunning, 1). Descartes understood how the foundation of his foundation was important and started by questioning the beliefs of people caused by their senses. Definitely, this is like questioning the existence of everything include the people themselves, their bodies etc. However, his aim did not lean on going against the existence of everything; the objective was making it known that relying on our senses to prove the existence of material substances is a belief open to extended doubt. This cancels out the notion of using senses to rationalize scientific knowledge; moreover, existence of anything else besides us is questionable. The summary implication is people are sure of the existence of external material substances but the senses are not the real source of this knowledge; the mind is key aspect. As a way of opening people’s mind to doubt, Descartes applies three comparable notions; the deceiving God, the dream and the evil demon arguments (Cunning, 1). The general concept in his three arguments is that people’s perception of objects is not direct but on the images formed in their minds by the different material substances. Depending on sense as the proprietor of existence is not rational because it leans more on mental images creating uncertainty on the nature of the external world and direct contact with material substances different from mental pictures of them. Dreams, a deceiving God and an evil demon do only form

Since the mid-nineteenth century income inequality across nations has Term Paper

Since the mid-nineteenth century income inequality across nations has increased dramatically. Discuss the sources and consequenc - Term Paper Example Nineteenth century witnessed collapse of pre-modern empires like the Roman Empire (Mokyr 40). As a result, new political entities, including the British and German empires came into existence. These changes created corresponding dynamics within economic sectors in affected regions. Since then, the world continues to experience shifts in economic dynamics from one region to another. Numerous theories strive to explain causes and consequences associated with these economic shifts. In order to understand what really happens, it is appropriate to look back at history and identify what caused economic changes at those times. Subsequently, we will be able to explain current economic inequality witnessed in modern societies across the world. Introduction In this context, political and social changes that took place during industrial revolution makes 19th Century the starting point of contemporary economic disparities. This period saw the rise of European powers into leading advancement in e xplorations and social modernization. Great Britain championed industrial revolution, which totally changed productivity and wealth creation across the globe. It was during this time that scientists came up with numerous breakthroughs in the field s of mathematics, electricity, chemistry and metallurgy (Mokyr 43). As a result, Great Britain and other European nations resolved to engage in industrial production of goods and mining activities. In this case, new resources that were not discovered and exploited in earlier empires came into existence. Improvement of transport networks through railway lines and establishment of urban settlements changed ways of living. On the other hand, Japan, Germany, and Portugal embarked on programs meant to spark modernization within their economic sectors. Great Britain led the world into abolition of slave trade in Europe, America, and Brazil. As a result, adoption and application of Liberalism started prevailing in modern government systems. Liber alism translated into the economic system of capitalism, which advocated for liberalized pursuit of economic goals by individuals within the society. Therefore, those who had access to key raw materials could utilize them for profit and wealth generation (Mokyr 44). On the other hand, poor citizens of these empires were employed in mines and industries as casual laborers. In this regard, integration of Liberalism and Capitalism marked inception of economic and income inequalities. In addition, globalization derives its roots from this period when economic performance of one nation could influence performance in another related country. Colonization spread into Africa and Asia where colonizers acquired additional wealth from unexploited territories. As a result, the scramble and partition of Africa by European’s major powers influenced economic changes through wealth acquisition from the colonies. All these economic changes resulted in advancement and increase of economic dist ribution and income inequality in the world. Income Inequality: Definition In this context, income inequality or economic inequality refers to distribution of assets and factors of production within a given economic region under consideration. Factors of economic production include major assets like land, capital, and labor. Income inequality changes depending on the period of time and economic

Patchwork Text Economic for Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Patchwork Text Economic for Business - Essay Example neration: how Britain has bankrupted its youth’ (Howker and Malik, 2010) and also on youth unemployment factors across the world along with their potential causes and solutions. The book, ‘Jilted Generation: how Britain has bankrupted its youth’ (Howker and Malik, 2010) focuses on the young generation of UK and the way political and economic climate has rendered them jilted. The poor economic condition of the youth leads to weak economic development in future, where they would be unable to pay off debts, receive healthcare and pension benefits. The authors of the book claim that the young generation of UK has received little benefits from the external environment to grow and prosper. This includes low training and development, late start of career, low educational growth and higher dependency on parents. If jobs are not available, then the young generation shall not be able to pay off debts or invest in house and property. Lack of earning also demotivates them to pursue higher qualification. Large sections of the youth take up smaller part-time jobs to support themselves. Since the youth cannot afford to buy houses by themselves, due to the high rental rates, they prefer living with their parents. Therefore, they remain to be in the shade and care of their parents, which causes them to develop lack of self-sustaining abilities. The dependency factor has also led them to be less serious about education and growth. However, the young generation does not compromise on receiving the basic education that would provide them with jobs; however, owing to lack of experience, they are ignored by companies. In order to eradicate the problem of youth employment, the U.K. government had taken measures such as, ‘Mandatory Work Activity’ and ‘The Young People Trailblazer’. Under such programs, the youth received training from reputed companies like, Tesco, Primark and several street store organizations and the selected good performers were offered jobs in the

Industry Analysis by Stage in PLC Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Industry Analysis by Stage in PLC - Essay Example The market is expected to grow continually for a decade. At 2013, the forecasted market value is $10.7 billion with a 9.4% growth from 2008 and a market volume of 3.8 billion liters with an 8.5% increase since 2008. (Datamonitor, 2008) The condition of the ice cream industry is influenced by several external factors. Social factors such as health issues can affect the buying behavior of consumers. The recent peanut butter recall due to contamination has decreased retail sales on peanut flavored ice cream. Obesity concerns and health trends has pushed manufacturers to launch new products that address the growing trends. (Peot, 2008) Economic factors such as recession affect the buying behavior of consumers and packaging techniques of producers. According to Berry, consumers budget their purchases during slower economic times and prefer to eat ice cream at home. The supermarket sales of ice cream increased because of this purchasing behavior. (Berry, 2009) Supermarket store chains have benefited an increase in sales of their private labels through this change (Ice Cream Going Private Label, 2009). Manufacturers, on the other hand, downsize its packaging due to increased raw material costs and energy expenditures. They have decreased the packaging volume in order to maintain, if not lower, the retail price of their products. (Berry, 2009) The US ice cream market is assessed as highly competitive. ... The market is dominated by three large companies. Unilever, Nestle and Blue Bell Creameries are the three well known companies. (Datamonitor, 2008) Unilever is a diversified company that engaged in global manufacturing and marketing of consumer goods in food, personal and homecare segments. The company generates revenues through different business divisions, one of which is ice cream and beverages. Their ice cream brands include Good Humor, Cornetto, Ben & Jerry's and Breyers. (Datamonitor, 2008) Nestle is engaged in the business of manufacturing and marketing branded food and beverages through six business divisions. One division involves milk products, nutrition and ice cream. The ice cream business carry the brands such as Slow Churned Dreyer's Grand Light, Sveltesse stick, Haagen Dazs and Legend Real Dairy. (Datamonitor, 2008) Blue Bell Creameries is engaged in the production and marketing of ice cream. The company sells its ice cream under the Blue Bell brand and has around 50 different ice cream flavors including Homemade Vanilla, its flagship flavor. (Datamonitor, 2008) Market Segments The ice cream market is fragmented. The segmentation is based on the preference and taste of consumers. The market segment is best categorized below. SEGMENT NAME SEGMENT PROFILE Premium Lovers Indulge in premium and super-premium quality ice creams; non-price sensitive; buy ice cream based on taste and high quality ingredients; prefers foodservice and dining out; mostly adults with higher incomes Wellness Aficionados Only eat ice creams that are labeled reduced fat, low-fat, non-fat or light products; weight conscious eaters; mostly women, prefer to buy based on the health benefits of the product; looks for

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

Recruitment and Selection - Research Paper Example Hence, without the recruitment process, the link between employers and potential employees would not exist. Selection is all about how to make accurate assessments on the weaknesses and strengths of applicants when identifying the person who is highly likely to perform a task more effectively. An excellent description of what selection is all about is provided by Gatewood, Field and Barrick (2010) on page 307. An applicant’s pool may serve as a limiting factor during the selection process because if there are applicants who are not appropriate for the position, the probability that the human resource management team will identify the appropriate applicants is low (Gatewood, Field and Barrick, 2010). The illustration shows the selection process is all about organizations choosing between job candidates. a. The selection process extremely critical in a company is because of its cost efficiency. The selection process makes it easier for companies to operate. When a company hires an unqualified employee, the person may increase the losses incurred because of low productivity from such an employee. The cost of operating with qualified employees tends is more economical than the costs incurred when operating or training unqualified employees. b. Most organizations today are now under the strict observation of the 21st century litigious society. As a result, it has led to many firms protecting themselves against discriminatory lawsuits more critical particularly when the hiring process is ongoing. Hence, the selection process is important because of the legal concerns involved. There are laws such as the Americans with Disability Act which ensure that there are equal opportunities for all candidates during the recruitment process regardless of their race, age, disability, sexual orientation among other differences (Gatewood, Field and Barrick, 2010). c. Lastly, the selection process is important because it promotes screening tools development. The key goal

The Life and Death of Stars (Astronomy) PowerPoint Presentation

The Life and Death of Stars (Astronomy) - PowerPoint Presentation Example Most prominent stars were grouped together and brightest of them all were given names. The grouping of stars also helped the astronomy to track motion and positions of other heavenly bodies .It was by this tracking that an idea came up of creating calendars where their used the motion of sun against the background stars. The widely used calendar in the world, The Gregorian Calendar, Which was based on the angle of earth’s rotational axis and the sun.How was the star formed according to the astronomys? All stars are born from collapsing dust and cloud of gases which are concentrated at temperatures for a period of years. When the protostars settles down at an average temperatures to form a main sequence star. Most of it’s life the stars uses nuclear fusion which is generated through fusion of hydrogen atoms at the core of main sequence star. The reason behind ganging up of stars in pairs or multiple around the milk way maybe because of the spinning dust and clouds of col lapsing dust causing a break up of two or three blobs. During formation of a star not all gas and dust is used up, The remaining materials becomes planets, comets, asteroids or may remain as dust. For a star to be as big as the sun it requires 50 million years from the beginning of the collapse till adulthood,where else our sun will remain in that state for 10 billion years. The helium formed in the interiors by the reaction of hydrogen fuels provides pressure which keeps the stars from collapsing under its own weight and produces energy which keeps on shinning. When the helium at the core of the star is nearly exhausted, allnatural occurring elements heavier than Hellium are formed via supernova nucleosynthesis or stellar nucleosynthesis. Supernova nucleosynthesis occurs when massive stars explode while stella nucleosynthesis occurs during their lifetimes. During the end lifetimesof the star there

Parkinsons and Huntingtons disease Essay Example for Free

Parkinsons and Huntingtons disease Essay How is the motor system organized? What are the neurological bases of Parkinsons and Huntingtons disease?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The motor system of the human anatomy is mainly rooted in the interaction of the nervous and muscular system wherein the interaction between the organs involved in the two enables the human body to move and react towards its environment. Basically, the motor system is organized between these two systems wherein the control process is centralized on the brain while the enactment of the movement is done in the muscle involved. In the brain, the motor control for voluntary movements is produced in the pyramidal system, which consists of two long neuron systems. These two systems are the upper motor neurons located in the primary motor cortex and the lower motor neurons in the anterior horn of the spinal cord. Another important system in the brain is the extrapyramidal motor system located in the midbrain. This system is responsible for dampening erratic motions, maintaining muscle tone and truncal ability. Another important region is the vestibular system, which is synaptically linked to the extrapyramidal system. This system controls the balance of the general body system and while doing movement. In addition is the cerebellum, which controls the muscle activity, tone, and equilibrium. In each of these systems in the brain, significant motor processes are produced and relayed into each region thus, producing the effective and logical reaction and movement of the human anatomy towards his or her environment.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚      Relevant to the healthy motor system of the human body is the condition of the different regions and systems involved in the processing of the motor movement impulses. In this aspect, the common diseases relative to body movement impairment are based on their neurological damage in the brain. The Parkinson’s disease in particular, which is a movement disorder, affects the basal ganglia region in the brain resulting to deterioration of relay of motor impulses. These influences in the significant brain regions manifest in conditions of muscle rigidity, slowing to loss of physical movement in extreme cases, tremor, and others, which are the characteristic of Parkinson’s disease. The Huntington’s disease is also a degenerative condition characterized by abnormal body movements and lack of coordination. This condition is rooted on the expansion of the altered form of Htt protein called mutant Huntingtin which results to cell death in most critical regions in the brain. These cellular deaths results to the reduction of impulse relay in the brain and the processing ability of the motor regions. This abnormal cellular death in the brain region affects the physical and cognitive ability of the human body characterized by the disease. In general, the degenerative health conditions affecting the body movement are mainly rooted on the abnormal development in the critical brain regions directly related to the motor system.   Bibliography Binder, M. D. (1999). Peripheral and Spinal Mechanisms in the Neural Control of Movement (Progress in Brain Research). Elsevier Science Publication. 1st Edition. ISBN-10: 0444502882.

Strategies to Detect Neutrinos

Strategies to Detect Neutrinos Thomas Kayll What are Neutrinos and how do we detect them A neutrino (ÃŽ ½) is a subatomic particle from the lepton family with a lepton number of +1, a charge of 0 and a spin of  ½. There are three flavours of neutrino the Muon Neutrino, Tau Neutrino and the Electron Neutrino1. Neutrinos rarely interact with matter because they are so small and have no charge and are also not affected by the strong nuclear force. So the only way a neutrino can interact with matter is through the weak nuclear force. Neutrinos are about 100,000 times smaller than electrons but there are so many neutrinos being emitted into the universe that even with their incredibly small mass they outweigh the amount of matter in the universe9. Figure 1 Neutrinos were hypothesised in 1930 by Wolfgang Pauli8, he theorised that another particle must be emitted in beta decay other than the electron as not all the energy from the decay carried by the electron so Pauli suggested that another particle was emitted and was carrying the rest of the energy given off. It was expected that the electron would carry all the energy but this is not what was found. The law of conservation of energy states that Energy can’t be created or destroyed, but it can be changed into a different form, also that in a closed system it cannot be lost. The red line represents the energy the electron should have if none was shared from the beta decay of carbon 14 and the blue line represents the actual energy of the electrons. The first people to detect the neutrino were Reines and Cowan. They did this by using the prediction the nuclear reactors were meant to produce high amounts of neutrino fluxes. When one of the antineutrinos collides with a proton a neutron and a positron are given off6. These positrons then collide with electrons and annihilate via pair-annihilation. When this happens two gamma rays are produced as radiation in opposite direction. Figure 8 Reines and Cowan soon realized that detecting the gamma bursts wasn’t enough evidence to categorically say they had found neutrinos. So they aimed to detect the neutron given off as well. Reines and Cowan set up a new experiment where they constructed a tank of water and lined it with a scintillating material to detect the gamma radiation. A scintillating material is a material that fluoresces when hit by a photon or a charged particle. This is then picked up and amplified by photomultiplier tubes. They also put cadmium into the tank; cadmium absorbed the neutrons given off in the reaction between the antineutrino and the proton and becomes an exited form of cadmium witch give off gamma radiation1.1. Figure 9 The gamma rays form the exited cadmium were detected 5X10-6 seconds after the positron electron annihilation. This gave enough evidence to prove that neutrinos did exist. Reines and Cowan repeated the experiment in a different location with better cosmic ray shielding. Cosmic rays comprise of very high energy particles such as high energy photons, these particles can interfere with very sensitive electronics used in the experiments and can create false readings. Form this they got more reliable results1.1. In a reaction the baryon number, lepton number and the strangeness must stay the same. So in beta decay where an electron is given off an anti lepton must be released to make the lepton number 0 again. I am going to be looking at how the Super-Kamiokandeis able to detect neutrinos. The Super-Kamiokandeis a large experiment where 50,000 tonnes2 of ultra pure water is held in a stainless steel spherical tank covered in 11,146 photomultiplier tubes all of this is located in a old mine 1,000 meters underground to stop cosmic ray interference. To be detected, a neutrino would interact with a H2O molecule and would cause an Electron to be discharged and this would be travelling faster than the speed of light in water causing Cherenkov radiation to be emitted. Cherenkov radiation is emitted when a particle travels faster than the maximum velocity of a photon in that medium. This radiation produces a ring of light which is detected by the photomultiplier tubes witch amplify the signal, using this we can calculate where the neutrino interacted and what flavour of neutrino it was3. Photomultiplier tubes are needed as they are able to amplify the signal by around 100 million times. When a photon from the Cherenkov radiation hits the photocathode then a photoelectron is released vie the photoelectric effect , this is then attracted to the first dynode with a pd of approximately 100V this electron gains kinetic energy and then hits the dynode liberating more electrons (typically 3-4) then these are attracted to the next electrode with a pd of 100V and a charge of 200eV and the same happens again until there is a strong enough signal and the electrons hit the anode and then the detected signal is sent off to the computer4. For each electron liberated on the dynodes the energy is The 100eV the electron carries is enough to liberate around 4 new electrons on the next dynode. With some electrons not hitting the dynodes and some not liberating exactly 4 new electrons then the figure that the signal is amplified by 100 million times and that (3-4) electrons are liberated by on electron make are correct. From research it seems that the dynodes have a work function (ψ) of around 5eV this means that about 80eV is lost when the electron hits the surface of the material. Figure 5 This Is the Super-Kamiokande form the inside. Each dot is a photomultiplier tube, and there are two people checking them on the surface of the water in a dingy. The first recorded instance of an observation of a neutrino was in 1970 on the 13 of November. The event was observed when a neutrino collided with a proton and created a mu-meson (muon) and a pi+-meson (pion). A pi+-meson is a particle which consists of a quark and an anti-quark. A pi+-meson consists of an up quark and an anti down quark. A muon is a member of the lepton family in the standard model. This all occurred in a hydrogen bubble chamber. A bubble chamber is a vessel that holds super heated liquid (in this case hydrogen); it is used to detect charged particles that enter it. It is able to crate observations of these particles as when a charged particle passes through the chamber it causes an ionisation path which causes the surrounding liquid to vaporise and form bubbles which size are proportional to the specific particles energy loss. This is all captured by cameras which can produce a picture of the event5. Figure 6 This is the original picture of the collision This is an annotated picture showing the paths of the colliding particles. Muon (ÃŽ ¼), proton (p), neutrino (ÃŽ ½ÃŽ ¼) and the pion (Ï€+). When the neutrino and the proton collide the proton moves to the left. The neutrino is turned into a muon which keeps going forwards and the pion is created from the collision5. The annotation to the right shows what is happening at the sub atomic level with quarks. In 2011 the OPERA experiment conducted which came across the odd results that neutrinos were travelling faster than the speed of light. The results were declared as anomalous as anything going faster than the speed of light in a vacuum is considered to go against special relativity. The scientists conducting the experiment set investigations into why they got the results they did. From these investigations it was found the there were two faults in how the experiment was set up. One was that a fibre optic cable was improperly connected and that a clock oscillator was set to fast. Taking both of these errors into account meant the reading were not actually faster than the speed of light. In 2012 it was reported that the speeds of neutrinos are the same as the speed of light. This information was gathered by numerous different scientific groups including OPERA. There are many different sources of neutrinos such gamma ray bursts, supernovas, neutron stars, nuclear fission and cosmic rays. Neutrinos are defiantly not rare with potentially about 100,000 billion passing through your body every second. All of these sources are some of the most energetic/violent processes in the universe. The main source of our neutrinos that are detected by places like ice cube and Super-Kamiokande is the sun through its nuclear fission which gives off many neutrinos. Here you can so that a neutrino and a positron are emitted when two H1 atoms collide and coalesce to form a H2 atom. Ice cube is another neutrino detector in the South Pole that uses the same idea as the super-Kamiokande in that it detects the gamma rays from when a neutrino collides with a water molecule. Ice cube is a hexagon that is around 2,450 meters deep and has 86 lines of sensors with 60 sensors on each line so a total of 5,160 sensors. Conclusion From my research into what neutrinos are and how we can detect them I have found out the fundamental nature of neutrinos and how we are able to detect something that rarely interacts with matter. I have learnt that neutrinos are harder to detect than I had imagined and that there are different methods such as detecting the Cherenkov radiation from the neutrinos colliding with water molecules or by seeing their ionising path in a bubble chamber. I have also found out some of the reasons behind why neutrinos are so hard to detect in the first place, for example that neutrinos are extremely small, have very low mass, are not charged and only really interact through the weak nuclear force. Over all, neutrinos are very elusive and one of the weirder particles that we have discovered and there is still a lot we do not know about them. Bibliography Date accessed: 23/11/2014 1 URL: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/particles/lepton.html URL: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/particles/cowan.html Hyper physics is a reliable website source because it is hosted by the physics and astronomy department at Georgia state university and has professors who teach the subjects input also it should be non biased as there is no gain for it providing false information. Hyper physics states that their second experiment at Savannah River Plantwas 12 meters underground and states the cross-section of the reaction to be 6X10-44 and the same figures are stated http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowan%E2%80%93Reines_neutrino_experiment Date accessed: 23/11/2014 URL: http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/1998/jun/05/super-kamiokande-finds-neutrino-mass Physics world is a website that publishes the new and old physics topics and has many different topics that it has published. It is a reliable source as it is backed by some very credible companies, such as Angstrom Sciences and Moxtek Inc. It also has scientist informing and righting as well which further proves the reliability of the website. Date accessed: 21/11/2014 URL: http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Super-Kamiokande.html Princeton.edu states that the page is sourced from Wikipedia URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super-Kamiokande. it is reliable as Princeton university would not be publishing wrong information on their site as that would be bad for them so that gives this information some credibility. Also physics world URL:http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/1998/jun/05/super-kamiokande-finds-neutrino-mass states that the super-Kamiokande is 1000m underground and holds 50,000 tonnes of water which is the same as on the Princeton page this back up the reliability of the data. Date accessed: 23/11/2014 URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photomultiplier The data that I found on Wikipedia on photomultiplier tubes was backed up from the equations I used to try and estimate the number of electrons hitting the anode, which gave similar figures to my calculations. Also the theory behind how photomultipliers work was the same as explained in http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/digitalimaging/concepts/photomultipliers.html this website also stated gains around 100 million which is my calculated and Wikipedia’s stated value. All this shows that it is a reliable source. Date accessed: 26/11/2014 URL: http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/ast123/lectures/lec22.html This is an educational site from the University of Oregon who should not be biased as they have no reason to put incorrect information on their website as it would have a negative effect on them and they wouldn’t gain anything. It is reliable as it is written by scientists. The date stated on the page November the 13th 1970 is the same as stated on http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FirstNeutrinoEventAnnotated.jpg. Date accessed: 26/11/2014 URL: http://t2k-experiment.org/neutrinos/a-brief-history/ T2k is a website dedicated to neutrinos. The website is primarily about news in the field and the t2k experiment of neutrino oscillation. It is a reliable source as it is written by professionals.† the positron annihilates with an electron to create two gamma rays† this statement says the same thing as http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/particles/lepton.html says on the topic. Date accessed: 30/11/2014 URL: http://icecube.wisc.edu/science/depth Ice cube is a website dedicated to the ice cube particle detector in the south-pole that is trying to detect neutrinos and more. Its primary funding source is the national science foundation, this is a US government organisation that funds and conducts many different projects. Their aim is to keep US science at the forefront of the world in discovery. The web site ice cube should be reliable as it has major government input and would not gain anything from false publication. On ice cube it states that the detector has 5,160 detectors this is the same at http://phys.org/news/2013-11-world-largest-particle-detector-icecube.html. Phys is a large physics news blog with articles written by universities and scientists so it is a reliable website as it is written by people who have extensive knowledge in what they write. â€Å"Advanced Physics†, Steve Adams, Jonathan Allday/oxford university press/November 2nd 2000, p416 Advanced physics is a book published by oxford university press. It is reliable because Oxford University is a highly regarded university that would get a negative publicity if what they published was incorrect. Oxford should not be biased as it doesn’t have any large Companies or influential people pressuring them to publish false information. â€Å"Neutrino†, Frank Close/oxford university press/ February 23rd 2012, p2 The book neutrino talks about what neutrinos are and how we detect them, their history, their discovery, their sources and many different topics related to them. The point of the book is to inform and educate people on neutrinos. Professor Frank Close the author is a professor at Oxford University this shows he knows what he is talking about and that the book is reliable as he is a regarded physicist. Oxford press is a reliable publisher as I have stated in reference 8. Figures Date accessed: 23/11/2014 URL:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/00/Standard_Model_of_Elementary_Particles.svg/2000px-Standard_Model_of_Elementary_Particles.svg.png Date accessed: 26/11/2014 URL: http://t2k-experiment.org/neutrinos/a-brief-history/ Date accessed: 23/11/2014 URL: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/particles/lepton.html Date accessed: 23/11/2014 URL: http://www.ocr.org.uk/Images/165501-unit-g495-advance-notice-june-2014.pdf Date accessed: 21/11/2014 URL:https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=irct=jq=esrc=ssource=imagescd=cad=rjauact=8ved=0CAUQjhwurl=http%3A%2F%2Fpprc.qmul.ac.uk%2F~still%2Fwordpress%2F%3Fpage_id%3D138ei=iSBnVK2IG5XWaqubgfAJbvm=bv.79142246,d.d2spsig=AFQjCNH_tc4ZUVMJfiVeSgUvb3ba_uDsqA Date accessed: 26/11/2014 URL:https://www.windows2universe.org/sun/Solar_interior/Nuclear_Reactions/Neutrinos/neutrino_picture_big.gif Date accessed: 26/11/2014 URL:http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/ast123/lectures/lec22.html Date accessed: 23/11/2014 URL:http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/particles/cowan.html Date accessed: 23/11/2014 URL:http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/particles/cowan.html

Turkish Migration To Germany History Essay

Turkish Migration To Germany History Essay In our presentation we are going to analyze a specific case concerning to the European continent. We will focus on the Turkish migration to Germany and all the consequences and implications it has brought to both countries since its beginnings until now. In order to do so we have to understand the general context of the continent, its history and the cultural backgrounds of the different players. We will see the differences in terms of languages, religions and common behaviors inside the old continent. We will start with basic information about Europe: Historical political divisions Population Countries Sub-regions Languages Finally we will make a brief review of the actual situation of Europe and we will talk about the European Union from its birth until these days (noting its relevance with our specific subject). As the center of the presentation is going to be the Turkish migration to Germany we will go through its history. We can find its roots in the 17th and 18th centuries and study its evolution and the conflicts that it has presented. European history On the second half of the 18th century there was a transformation in the British Empire on the social and economic structures that would lead to the posterior Industrial Revolution in the 19 century. The colonial expansion leaded to an increasingly demand on products, so the empires had to modernize their structures. The industrial revolution brought development for the whole continent in matter of technology and infrastructure, but in the end of the 18th century the French Revolution started to shape the actual foundations of the modern Europe. After the establishment of France as a republic, Napoleon and his campaign, and its posterior deception proclaiming himself emperor, the Empires started to show their own nationalism in different location of the continent. The Italian reunification, and the German unification, leaded by Otto Von Bismarck are two classical examples of the basis of nationalism. These empowered each empire and this would be the trigger of an arms race at the end of the 19th century. The Turkish nationalism finds its beginning on the last decade of the 19th century. By the beginning of the 20th century several states of Europe had won their independence and the tense relations among the several empires would lead to the First World War in 1914 which faced the Central Powers against the Allied Powers. The result of this war was the victory of the Allied Powers, and the new European order was established after the several treaties like the Versailles Treaty. The most affected empires after the war were the Ottoman Empire (which concluded in 1922) and the German Empire. The Germans were not quite happy with the Versailles Treaty, and especially a military called Adolph Hitler started to promote a new era for the German nationalism. In 1933 Hitler was elected as the new Chancellor of Germany and one year later he proclaims Fà ¼hrer and absolute emperor of the 3rd Reich. The fascism promoted by the Reich was influenced by the Italian fascism, and later it would also inspire the Spanish fascism. The Hitler ´s project with the Nazism was defeated in the end of the 2nd World War in 1945, and changed once again the European order. After this war the whole continent was in ruins. The human losses and infrastructure damage were crushing. Right after the war end, the reconstruction of Europe started with economic founds to stand up the old continent. Most of the states were united for one single objective and this common feeling would lead to the birth of the communities that later on led to the foundation of today ´s European Union. European Union The EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the European Community. It has built a single market that allows the free movement of people, goods, services, and capital. It maintains common policies on trade, agriculture, fisheries and regional development.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union cite_note-15 Sixteen member states have adopted a common currency, the euro, constituting the Eurozone. The EU has developed a limited role in foreign policy, having representation at the World Trade Organization, G8, G-20 major economies and at the United Nations. In certain areas, decisions are made through negotiation between member states, while in others; independent supranational institutions are responsible without a requirement for unanimity between member states. Important institutions of the EU include the European Commission, the Council of the European Union, the European Council, the Court of Justice of the European Union, and the European Central Bank. The European Parliament is elected every five years by member states citizens, to whom the citizenship of the European Union is guaranteed. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community formed among six countries in 1951 and the Treaty of Rome formed officially the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy community in 1957 by the same states (Belgium, France, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands and West Germany). This was the very first origin of the European Community. Since then there have been several enlargements to become in the EU as we know it today. EU enlargements: 1973- Denmark, Ireland and UK. 1981- Greece. 1986- Spain and Portugal. The EU flag started to be used. 1990- East Germany. 1993- Maastricht treaty and official formalization of the EU. 1995- Austria, Sweden and Finland. 2002- Euro as a currency. 2004- Malta, Cyprus, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovak Republic and Hungary. 2007- Romania and Bulgaria. Language Native Speakers Total English 13% 51% German 18% 32% French 12% 26% Italian 13% 16% Spanish 9% 15% Polish 9% 10% Dutch 5% 6% Greek 3% 3% Czech 2% 3% Swedish 2% 3% Hungarian 2% 2% Portuguese 2% 2% Catalan 1% 2% Slovak 1% 2% Danish 1% 1% Finnish 1% 1% Lithuanian 1% 1% Bulgarian 1% 1% Romanian 1% 1% Slovene 1% 1% 1Published in 2006, before the accession of Bulgaria and Romania. Native: Native language Total: EU citizens able to hold a conversation in this language With 27 member countries and a population of nearly half a billion, the European Union covers a large part of Europe. Since its creation, it has worked to bring prosperity and stability to its citizens. Its policies and actions affect all its citizens directly and indirectly. The European Union is the worlds biggest trading power. It accounts for 17% of the world trade (similar to the US), and is also the first investing power in FDI. The European Union has 495 million inhabitants the worlds third largest population after China and India. Country Population (millions) China (CN)   1 321.8 India (IN)   1 129.9 EU-27   495.0 United States (US)   301 Russia (RU)   141.4 Japan (JP)   127.4 Eurostat, www.census.gov One of the EUs main aims is economic progress. Over the last 50 years, and especially since the 1980s, much has been done to break down the barriers between the EUs national economies and to create a single market where goods, people, money and services can move around freely. Trade between EU countries has greatly increased and, at the same time, the EU has become a major world trading power. GDP in billions of euro (2007) Country GDP (billions euro) EU-27 12276.2 US 10094.5 Japan 3197.6 China* 1787.3 Russia* 610.6 *2005 Sources: IMF, Eurostat. In all EU countries, over 60% of GDP is generated by the service sector (this includes things such as banking, tourism, transport and insurance). Industry and agriculture, although still important, have declined in economic importance in recent years. If a country has applied to join the European Union and its application has been officially accepted, it becomes a candidate country. At present there are three candidate countries Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Turkey. Before a candidate country can join the EU it must have a stable system of democratic government, institutions that ensure the rule of law and respect for human rights. It must also have a functioning market economy and an administration capable of implementing EU laws and policies. The specific membership terms for each candidate country are worked out in negotiations with the European Commission. The candidate countries differ in size, with Turkey by far the largest. Its population is bigger than any current EU member except Germany. Together, the three candidates would increase the total EU population by 16%. When you compare their GDP in PPS per inhabitant, the candidate countries are considerably less wealthy than the EU average. However, Croatia has a per capita GDP which is higher than those of Bulgaria and Romania, who became EU members in 2007. Economic reforms in recent years have brought great changes in the candidate countries, helping to create new jobs. But employment rates among people of working age in the candidate countries are lower than the EU average. In the candidate countries, as in the EU, services (including tourism) are an important part of the economy. As with the countries that have joined the EU since 2004, the candidate countries have a larger share of the population employed in agriculture than the EU-15. Germany The federal Republic of Germany is located in central Europe. With more than 82000.000 people it represents the most populated country among the members of the EU. It is also the third biggest international migrant destination in the world. The reunification of the German States was in October 3rd in 1990 (one year after the fall of the Berlin wall). Germany stands as the third biggest economy with a GDP of US$ 3.67 trillion. It accounts for GDP per capita of US$ 44.728. Christianism has the biggest representation in Germany accounting for 64% of the population. Islamism is the second one (4%) followed by Buddhism and Judaism (0, 25% each). The German management style is rigorous but not ruinous. The companies fight for market share and not for market domination, in contrast with the American styles. The managers are always committed with all the processes inside the company in order to follow production methods closely and know their shop floors intimately. Turkish migration to Germany. The Germanic states have been in contact with Turks since the 17th and 18th centuries when the Ottoman Turks attempted to expand their territories through the Balkans. Two sieges were held in Vienna in 1529 and 1683.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turks_in_Germany cite_note-7 It was the latter incident that, after the retreat of the Ottoman army, left behind many Muslim Turks who first became permanent residents in Germany. The relief of Vienna and the Ottoman retreat left behind large numbers of Ottoman soldiers and camp followers, either as stragglers or prisoners. Diplomatic relations were established between Berlin and Constantinople (todays Istanbul) in the 18th century, and by the 19th century trading treaties were set up between the two cities. These developments encouraged the crossover of citizens between the Ottoman and German states.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turks_in_Germany cite_note-11 As a consequence to these developments, the Turkish community in Germany, and particularly in Berlin, grew significantly in the years before the First World War. During the World War I the Ottoman Empire and the German Empire fought as allies. During the postwar period the Turkish governments supported the Federal Germany in all the international instances. Nevertheless as the postwar was left behind and the migration of the Turkish to Germany started to be massive the situation between both countries has been deteriorated. During the Nazi regime and since the beginning of the Second World War, foreign workers were incorporated to the labor force and the industrial production of Germany was held by war prisoners. The evolution of Germany as an immigrant receptor country started in the 50s. Decimated by the war the German soldiers were not able to cover the labor force needed when they came back to their home. Until 1950 this gap in the demand was covered by the fugitives of the East Germanic zones. Since 1959 (and later on with the Berlin Wall in 1961) many German companies suffered a huge lack of qualified workers leading to the signature of working contracts from workers coming from Greece, Spain, Turkey, Portugal, Morocco, Tunisia and Yugoslavia. These contracts objectives were to recruit the Gastarbeiter (guest worker) in order to impulse the German miracle. The Gastarbeiter were foreign men that arrived into Germany without their families with the intentional to return to their homelands as soon as possible. This immigration to Germany brought huge benefits for all. The German enterprises could keep their growing rate; German government received extra contributions for the payment of pensions from the foreigners without having to pay anything to this group of workers. In the other hand the foreign nations could low the unemployment rate and receive money from Germany, all these because of the money remitted by the workers to their families. Finally the labor qualification of the workers increased in the German companies. In 1965 the foreigners law entered into force, this law made more flexible the permissions for residence and work for the foreigners. Both the entrepreneurs and the foreign workers were convinced that their stay in Germany was temporary, so the term Fremdarbeiter (foreign worker) was officially substituted by Gastarbeiter (guest worker), making emphasis on the provisional status. Later in 1971 the Work Permit Decree established that the foreigners with more than 5 years in Germany would receive a limited permission to stay another 5 years. These conditions plus the high population growth and mass unemployment within Turkey led to a massive migration of Turkish to Germany. By 1973 around 80% of the Turkish in western Europe were living in Germany, and although this share decreased to 70% by 1990, Germany remained by far the most important country of settlement for Turkish migrants. In 1978 Germany applied the law of family regrouping law and the arrival of migrants looking for political asylum. After this in 1983 the return to the original country for those who wanted to was facilitated by the German government, and in the following years the migratory quantity was negative. Since 1985 the immigration in Germany increased again due to the massive arrival of refugees because of the conflicts in the Balkans. On January 1, 2000, the new Nationality Law entered legal force which introduced elements of the ius soli for foreign children born in Germany for the first time. The law also brought new regulations for adult foreigners by reforming the old ones: among others a reduction of the necessary time of sojourn and the introduction of a language test in the naturalization proceeding. This change in law was the first step to solve a problem in the legal integration of immigrants to Germany which had already become obvious for quite a considerable time. Nowadays from the 2,3 million of Turks living in Germany, only 700.000 have German passport. Negative sentiments towards immigrants, which have been evident in most industrialized countries during the last decade, are often expressed as fears that immigrants adversely affect the economic welfare of the native population. Immigrants are often perceived as a burden for the public budget as they allegedly pay less tax and contributions, on the one hand, but claim more benefits and disproportionately consume Government-provided goods and services. The effects of globalization on the labor market in European countries have become a major issue of public debate. The concern is that either jobs will be exported to low wage countries, or that immigrants will replace domestic workers in the destination country or depress local wages. Trade theory suggests that the mobility of factors of production reduces returns to the factor that is imported, and increases returns to other factors. Therefore, high-skilled migrants, for instance, should reduce salaries for high-skilled labor (as the offer of high-skilled labor is now more plentiful) and increase returns to capital and low-skilled workers. A major topic in the discussion on the impact of immigration on labor markets is the issue whether natives and foreigners are substitutes or whether foreign workers complement Germans in production. But overall, migrants have little aggregate effect on native wages and employment, though they can have more of an effect on different subgroups of natives. It is of substantial importance for the evaluation of the effects of immigration to know in which industries migrants work. In 2003 almost 60 % of immigrants were employed in the tertiary sector. A high percentage was also employed in manufacturing and construction. Over the past 20 years, there is a shift in sector distribution of migrant employees towards the tertiary sector. For a long time immigrants to advanced economies were viewed as workers who were pre-dominantly depicted as suppliers of cheap low-skilled labor. More recently, attention has shifted toward immigrants who start their own businesses. Self-employed or immigrant entrepreneurs have set up shop all over the western world and shaped the cosmopolitan look of many advanced economies. Self-employment by immigrants provides important socio-economic benefits for those directly involved in this process, as well as to the broader immigrant community and the immigrants host country. In terms of consumption, immigrants have also an important impact. Turkish Studies estimated, based on a survey of Turkish and German households, total consumption volume of Turkish community in Germany to be about 10 Billion German Mark in 1992. Over 45,000 Turks have purchased either a flat or a house in Germany. They make up a significant consumer group in the housing, car and stock exchange markets and show more interest in consumer goods than Germans. The study concludes that Turkish households have higher consumption than German households. This finding is to some extent in contradiction with a general expectation in the relevant literature that migrants have a much higher savings ratio than natives. It is due to migrants expectation of their future income to fall if they have a positive probability of returning home, or an assumed higher marginal utility of consumption in their home country. Immigrants remit the bulk of their savings to their families back home. The political and academic debate on the cultural context of migration has so far focused on the Muslim minority though, which nowadays accounts for 3 % of the total population of Ger-many. Due to the fact that the majority of Muslim migrants have settled down permanently in Germany, members of the Muslim community have been working towards establishing their own institutions and practicing their traditional rites in Germany. These efforts include the construction of representative mosques and Muslim cemeteries, the practice of Muslim burial rituals, dress codes, the ritual slaughtering of animals or the introduction of Islamic religious instruction at public schools. Particularly the construction of mosques and cemeteries results in visible changes of German cityscapes: There are no longer just numerous in conspicuous backyard mosques, but also representative Mosque complexes. On account of their architecture, size and symbolic significance, such building plans have in almost all ca ses triggered controversy within local communities. There can be noticed impacts in all the fields (not only economic or religious). The German eating habits and the restaurant scene have fundamentally changed over the last decades: Non-German produce and meals have become an integral part of everyday life for almost everybody. The large number of ethnic food stores offering non-German products, above all Turkish greengrocers and the Asia Shop, also draw many customers from the receiving society. The prime example is the Turkish Dà ¶ner, or kebab, which has become the most popular type of fast food in Germany. Since the end of the 1990s, kebabs have become the product with the highest sales figures on the German restaurant market. Migration and the media has been a topic widely elaborated. Two aspects appear to be particularly relevant: Immigrants as media consumers and producers, as well as immigrants as topics of reports in the German media. The German media market offers a wide range of products for non-Germans, most of them being monolingual and addressing one nationality only. Over fifty non-German newspapers are produced in Germany; among the languages of former guest workers the majority of them being published are in Turkish. Additionally, there is a Turkish radio station in Berlin. In addition, there have also been plans for setting up a German-Turkish TV channel. At the same time, German-Turkish film and television companies play a more important role on the German media market. Conclusions: Europe has been characterized through all its history for its ethno-diversity due to several intercultural encounters. The creation of the European Union and all its laws has consolidated even more the cultural mixture environment inside the continent. Because of being the first economy in the world, the EU constitutes an attractive market for migrant workers from both its member and non-member States. The actual situation in Germany with the Turks is the result of the evolution of 400 years of tight relations between both cultures. The II World War and the lack of men hand labor was a critical factor that triggered the migration to Germany. The specific conditions and relations allowed that a huge part of these migrants to be Turkish. Turkish migrants still represents a relevant source of hand labor and entrepreneurship in Germany. Turkish represents the majority of the minorities in Germany. The immigrants influence in Germany can be seen not only in the economic terms but also in all the social, political, religious and cultural issues that involve a cross-cultural encounter. Methodology This work is going to be presented in the course Organizations and cultures, as an oral exposition on Thursday 22nd April 2010. We will use Microsoft Power Point slides and some other multimedia backup.

Video Game Violence Essay -- Legal Issues, Violent Video Games

â€Å"Video Game Violence Does Not Cause Violent Tendencies† An In-Depth Look at Video Game Violence and its Positives Effects â€Å"On Tuesday, November 2, while the rest of the country was voting, the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments in Schwarzenegger v. EMA, the landmark case in which the state of California is petitioning for the re-instatement of a California law banning the sale of deviant or morbid violent video games to minors† (Macris). This case is a current example of the opponents of video games trying to prove video games are a bad influence on children and teenagers. Violent video game opponents have always tried to disprove the positive effects of video games. They also have been known to make up and mislead with tales of terrible side effects. This essay will prove to the reader that many of these various statements against video games and their creators are false. Contrary to opposition arguments, video games actually present benefits to gamers by reducing stress, providing entertainment, and helping to develop motivation that could not otherwise be achieved through conventional means. This essay will attempt to prove, that statements made regarding the inappropriateness of video games are untrue. The advantage of playing video games can be proven in their ability to enhance learning, hand-eye coordination, and this in turn can enable children and teenagers to do better in school. Violent video games can help overcome anxiety by providing entertainment without leaving the house, taking everyday stresses out on the characters in the game instead of real life, takes the adolescent’s minds off worries and stress of the outside world, and encourages children to stay out of trouble. Video games c... ... methodologies and the intrusion of ideology and scientific dogma† (Ferguson 11). Violent Video Games do not cause increased violent tendencies in youth and adolescents due to the fact violent video games have been around for years and in those years violence caused by teens have actually been dropping rather than increasing. Also, violent video games have been shown through research that the negatives are highly outweighed by the positives. Also, with the introduction of interactive gaming there are a new range of possibilities for violent video games. Such as sending a message to children about healthy activities by getting them off of the couch. So hopefully in five years violent video games will have moved to full interactive gaming so that it looks more real-life, but more importantly that it will still be a form of media that helps to relive personal stress. Video Game Violence Essay -- Legal Issues, Violent Video Games â€Å"Video Game Violence Does Not Cause Violent Tendencies† An In-Depth Look at Video Game Violence and its Positives Effects â€Å"On Tuesday, November 2, while the rest of the country was voting, the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments in Schwarzenegger v. EMA, the landmark case in which the state of California is petitioning for the re-instatement of a California law banning the sale of deviant or morbid violent video games to minors† (Macris). This case is a current example of the opponents of video games trying to prove video games are a bad influence on children and teenagers. Violent video game opponents have always tried to disprove the positive effects of video games. They also have been known to make up and mislead with tales of terrible side effects. This essay will prove to the reader that many of these various statements against video games and their creators are false. Contrary to opposition arguments, video games actually present benefits to gamers by reducing stress, providing entertainment, and helping to develop motivation that could not otherwise be achieved through conventional means. This essay will attempt to prove, that statements made regarding the inappropriateness of video games are untrue. The advantage of playing video games can be proven in their ability to enhance learning, hand-eye coordination, and this in turn can enable children and teenagers to do better in school. Violent video games can help overcome anxiety by providing entertainment without leaving the house, taking everyday stresses out on the characters in the game instead of real life, takes the adolescent’s minds off worries and stress of the outside world, and encourages children to stay out of trouble. Video games c... ... methodologies and the intrusion of ideology and scientific dogma† (Ferguson 11). Violent Video Games do not cause increased violent tendencies in youth and adolescents due to the fact violent video games have been around for years and in those years violence caused by teens have actually been dropping rather than increasing. Also, violent video games have been shown through research that the negatives are highly outweighed by the positives. Also, with the introduction of interactive gaming there are a new range of possibilities for violent video games. Such as sending a message to children about healthy activities by getting them off of the couch. So hopefully in five years violent video games will have moved to full interactive gaming so that it looks more real-life, but more importantly that it will still be a form of media that helps to relive personal stress.

U.S. Constitution :: essays research papers

The document I chose to write about is the United States Constitution. When the thirteen British colonies in North America declared their independence in 1776, they laid down that â€Å"governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.† The â€Å"colonies† had to establish a government, which would be the framework for the United States. The purpose of a written constitution is to define and therefore more specifically limit government powers. After the Articles of Confederation failed to work in the 13 colonies, the U.S. Constitution was created in 1787. The Constitution is important because it was expressly designed to limit powers into three co-ordinate branches, the legislative, executive, and judiciary branch; none of which was to have supremacy over the others. This separation of powers with the checks and balances which each branch was given over the others was designed to prevent any branch, from infringing individual liberties safeguarded by the Constitution. I think the U.S. Constitution was a way for the U.S. to establish government which was a negotiation between the two former governments, a monarchy and total state power. I think by creating the checks and balances, people’s rights would be safer and they would feel more secure not having one branch of government with absolute power. What I found most interesting about the Constitution was how complex and detailed the framers made it, to effectively explain and limit the individual branches of power in government. In the words of Thomas Paine, "a governm ent without a constitution is power without right". Meaning that for power to be granted, it is necessary to establish a constitution. The Federalist Papers 10 & 51 were essays which helped persuade the citizens of the United States to vote for the federal Constitution. James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay used pseudonyms as their names to convince the public. Those who were skeptical of voting for a government, which had many different major powers, were reassured by the founding fathers in their speeches and conventions throughout the U.S. The importance of Constitution, both in its content and its status, is little appreciated by the general public.

Matteo Ricci

The year 1982 was a ‘Ricci-year’: scholarly meetings in different places around the world, from Chicago (US), over Macerata (Italy) to Taibei (Taiwan), commemorated Matteo Ricci’s entry in China. It was exactly four hundred years since his arrival in the Portuguese settlement of Macao in 1582 and his entry into the mainland one year later. In 2001, there were new celebrations of Ricci, in Hong Kong and in Beijing, commemorating his definitive settling in Beijing in 1601. The year 2010 is again a ‘Ricci-year’, this time commemorating his death in Beijing in 1610.Is there anything new to be said about Matteo Ricci after this time-lapse of twenty-seven years, which corresponds to the period of Ricci’s own ascent to and settling in Beijing? Well, his writings have become more accessible to the academic and wider community: for instance, in Chinese there are now readily available editions of his Chinese writings and several translations of his Della entrata della Compagnia di Giesu e Christianita nella Cina (‘About the Christian expedition to China undertaken by the Society of Jesus’) – a strong contrast to the prudent two-page article in Renmin huabao(‘China Pictorial’) of July 1982.But publications not only flourished in Chinese. The Ruggieri-Ricci manuscript of the Portuguese-Chinese dictionary was published for the first time; Ricci’s letters and the Italian version of Della entratawere reprinted (2000-2001)[1]; others works have been translated: the catechism Tianzhu shiyi (‘The True Meaning of God’) into English, Japanese, Korean and Italian; the treatise on friendship Jiaoyoulun into Italian, German, and French; the treatise on mnemotechnics (the art of memory), Xiguo jifa into German.There were numerous secondary sources: at least 200 articles, many of them in Chinese, illuminate various aspects of his life and works. The most well-known work is possibly Jonathan Spe nce’s Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci (1984), also translated into Chinese (two translations), French, Spanish and Dutch. [2] All this is very impressive and underscores the fact that Ricci remains an attractive figure both on the academic and the more popular level.Yet a close look at these writings reveals in particular the excellence of research accomplished earlier: the quality of Pasquale d’Elia’s annotated edition of the primary sources (Fonti Ricciane, 3 vols. , 1942-1949)[3] and the analysis of the method of evangelisation by d’Elia’s student Johannes Bettray (Die Akkommodationsmethode des P. Matteo Ricci S. I. in China, 1955)[4] is rarely matched today. Since these writings are in Italian and German respectively, they have unfortunately often been neglected.Compared to these writings, recent publications rarely bring to light new elements about Ricci himself, they rather nuance Ricci’s ‘success story’ by putting his accom plishments and writings in a broader context. For instance, it appears that Ricci was less accommodative than often assumed,[5] and that fellow Jesuits such as Niccolo Longobardo (1565-1655) had a better knowledge of the Chinese Classics and the Neo-Confucian commentaries than Ricci himself. How then to tell Ricci's story in the year 2010?One major development in recent years is the historiography of the contacts between cultures, with a primary question of the perspective from which one needs to look at the missionary: from his own perspective or from the perspective of the receiving culture? Taking benefit from these developments, this article will reread Ricci's story and ask how Ricci was shaped by the other, especially by the Chinese. [6] Four characteristics of Jesuit missionary strategy in China As a starting point one can make a first – rather traditional – reading of Ricci’s life by focusing on the missionary himself.The ‘Jesuit missionary strateg y’ in China was conceived by Alessandro Valignano (1539-1606), who was the former novice master of Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) and who was Jesuit visitor for East Asia during the period 1574-1606. His strategy was creatively put into practice by Matteo Ricci. Later generations, well into the eighteenth century, associated this strategy with Ricci and called it the ‘Ricci-method’. It can be described by four major characteristics[7]: 1. A policy of accommodation or adaptation to Chinese culture. 8] Valignano, who had been disappointed by the limited degree of the Jesuits’ adaptation to Japanese culture, insisted in the first place on knowledge of the Chinese language. Therefore he called a few Jesuits to Macao in 1579 ordering them to focus their attention entirely on the study of language (fellow Jesuits criticised them for spending all their time studying Chinese). Two years later Michele Ruggieri (1543-1607) entered China through the south, and Matteo Ricci followed one year later. Probably inspired by the Japanese situation, they dressed like Buddhist monks. In 1595, after nearly fifteen ears of experience, they changed this policy and adapted themselves to the life-style and etiquette of the Confucian elite of literati and officials. Ricci was responsible for this change. This new policy remained unchanged throughout the whole seventeenth century and for most Jesuit missionaries Matteo Ricci became the reference point with regard to the accommodation policy. 2. Propagation and evangelisation ‘from the top down’. Jesuits addressed themselves to the literate elite. The underlying idea was that if this elite, preferably the Emperor and his court, were converted, the whole country would be won for Christianity.The elite consisted mainly of literati, who had spent many years of their life preparing for the examinations they needed to pass to become officials. For these examinations they had to learn the Confucian classics an d the commentaries. After having passed the Metropolitan examinations, which took place in Beijing every three years and at which about three hundred candidates were selected, they entered the official bureaucracy and received appointments as district magistrates or positions in the ministries.As in modern diplomatic service, the offices usually changed every three years. In order to enter into contact with this elite, Ricci studied the Confucian classics and, with his remarkable gift of memory, became a welcome guest at the philosophical discussion groups that were organised by this elite. 3. Indirect propagation of the faith by using European science and technology in order to attract the attention of the educated Chinese and convince them of the high level of European civilisation.Ricci offered a European clock to the Emperor, he introduced paintings which impressed the Chinese with their use of perspective, translated mathematical writings of Euclid with the commentaries of the famous Jesuit mathematician Christophorus Clavius (1538-1612), and printed an enormous global map which integrated the results of the latest world explorations. By these activities Ricci established friendly relationships which sometimes resulted in the conversion of members of the elite: Xu Guangqi (1562-1633; baptised as Paul in 1603) and Li Zhizao (1565-1630; baptised as Leo in 1610) are the most famous of Ricci's time. . Openness to and tolerance of Chinese values. In China, Matteo Ricci encountered a society with high moral values, for which he expressed his admiration. Educated in the best Jesuit humanistic tradition, he favourably compared Confucius (552-479 BC) with ‘an other Seneca’ and the Confucians with ‘a sect of Epicurians, not in name, but in their laws and opinions’. [9] Ricci was of the opinion that the excellent ethical and social doctrine of Confucianism should be complemented with the metaphysical ideas of Christianity.However, he reject ed Buddhism, Taoism, and Neo-Confucianism, which in his eyes was corrupted by Buddhism. Ricci pleaded for a return to original Confucianism, which he considered to be a philosophy based on natural law. In his opinion it contained the idea of God. Finally, he adopted a tolerant attitude towards certain Confucian rites, such as the ancestral worship and the veneration of Confucius, which soon were labelled ‘civil rites’. Methodological questions There are several reasons why these four characteristics can rightly be identified as typical for Ricci and his fellow-Jesuits in a broader sense.First of all, one can easily find a justification for them in the Jesuit official documents of Ignatian inspiration, especially the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus and Ignatius’s Spiritual Exercises, which often insist on accommodation. Secondly, one can contrast these policies with those adopted by the contemporary Franciscans and Dominicans. These orders appeared less acco mmodative, less elite-oriented, less involved with sciences, and, lastly, less tolerant towards local ritual traditions.Finally, in publications about Jesuits in China in modern times, both by Jesuits and non-Jesuits, these elements are in one way or another presented as ‘typically Ricci’ or as ‘typically Jesuit’. There are also several reasons why these characteristics of strategy can be questioned. First, it can be questioned whether it is a ‘Jesuit’ strategy. Here, the comparison with the mission in Japan is quite determining. The first thirty years of Jesuit mission in Japan show quite a different picture, since before Valignano's arrival the accommodation policy was very restricted.Thus the actual strategy was determined to a large extent by the inspiration of an individual such as Valignano rather than by a common ‘Jesuit’ formation or training. A second problem with ‘strategy’ is that it seems to refer to a pre- set and well-thought policy that was consistently executed over time. Yet, some scholars have convincingly argued that Ricci himself ‘had not formed a precise opinion on the problem of evangelisation in China and that his judgment concerning the means and methods to adopt in order to convert the Chinese varied in the course of the years he spent on this task. [10] Thus the systematic labelling of any action as issuing from a ‘Ricci-method’ is probably an overestimation. Thus, while these four characteristics of the Jesuit strategy in China are certainly not invalid, they possibly present only one side of the story. The major methodological objection that can be raised is that an identity is not only formed through the isolated effort of the Self, but is shaped through constant interaction with the Other. This is true for individuals, but also for groups.Therefore, what we call the Jesuit missionary strategy in China is not only the result of a conscious and well-d efined policy conceived by Valignano and the proactive and creative elaboration of it by missionaries like Matteo Ricci. To a large extent, it is also the result of their reaction to what China was and who the Chinese were. In other words, their identity was shaped by the Chinese Otheras well. If Ricci became who he became, it was also because the Other encouraged him actively or passively to become like that.Thus the story should not only be told from the perspective of the missionary (Ricci), but also from the perspective of the receiving community (the Chinese). I will therefore review the four different characteristics and try to demonstrate how the Chinese ‘Other’ helped shape the Jesuit mission. I will bring into the picture the results of recent research on Christianity in late Ming China. These results have often been obtained by focusing on the point of view of the Chinese, ‘the Other’, and by taking the Chinese texts as primary source for research . Shaped by the Other 1.Accommodation to Chinese culture. The most obvious example of the interference of the Other in the field of accommodation is the change from a policy of adaptation to Buddhism to a policy of adaptation to Confucianism (and subsequently the rejection of Buddhism). The Other was already present in the original decision to adopt the Buddhist dress, since it was the Governor of Guangdong who either insisted that this was the way the missionaries should dress, or who approved the proposal of Michele Ruggieri to do so. [11] The accommodation to the Buddhist life-style was not without advantages.It enabled the Jesuits to make contact with the majority of the Chinese population more easily and allowed them to focus conversation directly on religious matters. But there were also disadvantages. From a Confucian perspective, Buddhism and Christianity shared many religious elements and were very similar to each other. Both can be classified as an institutional religion w ith a system of theology, rituals and organisation of its own, independent of so-called secular institutions. Confucianism, on the other hand, resembles a diffused religion.Its theology, rituals, and organisation were intrinsically tied up with the concepts and structures of secular institutions and the secular social order. [12] Moreover, Christianity shared elements with Buddhism such as belief in afterlife, the idea of heaven and hell, the practice of celibacy, etc. which were very un-Confucian. From Ricci's Della entrata and later apologetic works one can observe that precisely this similarity to the Other (the Buddhists) forced the Jesuits to dissociate themselves from the Other and emphasise their differences.The first (unconscious) reason for this change was that within the Chinese religious context there was too much competition between Buddhism and Christianity. Jesuits were in fact subjected to the phenomenon of ‘inflated difference’: i. e. the phenomenon in w hich a minority group, pressed to consolidate its own identity, is prone to dis-identify with others and to play up otherwise negligible differences between those inside and those outside its boundaries. [13] The only way to dissociate themselves from the Buddhist monks (who were considered to be very low on the social ladder) was to turn to Confucianism.In fact, it was the Other represented by Confucian literati such as Qu Taisu (Qu Rukui) (b. 1549) who encouraged Ricci to institute this change. [14] Here a second important element in which the Other determines the Self needs to be mentioned. It was labelled ‘cultural imperative’ by Erik Zurcher, and belongs to the deep structure in Chinese religious life in late imperial China. [15] No marginal religion penetrating from the outside could expect to take root in China (at least at a high social level) unless it conformed to a pattern that in late imperial times was more clearly defined than ever.Confucianism represented what is zheng (‘orthodox’) in a religious, ritual, social and political sense. In order not to be branded as xie (‘heterodox’) and be treated as a subversive sect, a marginal religion had to prove that it was on the side of zheng. The authority of Confucianism, and its sheer mass and attractive power, were such that any religious system from outside was caught in its field, and was bound to gravitate towards that centre. These two elements, inflated difference and cultural imperative, show the heavy influence of the Other in Ricci's strategy of accommodation.The Chinese made Ricci adapt to the particular Chinese situation. One may also point out that the refinement and sophistication of the Other imposed some limits on the accommodation by the Jesuits. It is indeed remarkable that the Jesuits apparently were not able to accommodate themselves to certain aspects of Chinese culture because they were too difficult to master or were too different from the Euro pean background. Here one touches on aspects of Jesuit corporate culture in Europe and many parts of the world that were not put into practice in China.The clearest example is that of schools and education. Despite their hope to replace the subject-matter of the Chinese exams by Aristotelian philosophy, the Jesuits were never able to influence the well-established Chinese education system. There were also aspects that did not belong to their corporate culture, but that were also too sophisticated to learn or to adopt. In the field of arts, one usually cites the successful adaptation of Jesuit painters like Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766), but there is hardly any adoption of, or interest in, Chinese calligraphy.Yet, every member of the educated Chinese elite spent long hours when they were young learning calligraphy, and quite a few continued to practise it every day of their lives. Although the Jesuits’ effort was directed at this elite, in their copious writings there is ha rdly any indication that the Jesuits appreciated the aesthetic dimension of calligraphy and the pivotal role that it played in Chinese culture. [16] In the field of Chinese customs, Ricci and his fellow-Jesuits found it impossible to let their finger nails grow very long, as was the custom among the Chinese literati. 17] These are negative examples of influence that clearly show how Chinese culture imposed limits on accommodation. 2. The propagation ‘from the top’ is a second field in which the role of the Other can be amply shown. First it should be pointed out that the motive of Ricci’s ‘ascent to Beijing’[18] was not necessarily the conversion of the Emperor. The initial objective of Ricci, as expressed in his Della entrata, was not to reach Beijing, but just to have a residence on the mainland.It was because of the many difficulties Jesuits encountered in obtaining permission to enter China and in establishing a permanent residence there that the y gradually made a plan to go to Beijing in order to obtain the support of the ‘King of China’. [19] In this move to Beijing they largely depended on the elite. [20] There certainly were proactive or planned decisions by Ricci and his companions: they preferred the centre to the periphery and they chose to live in a city rather than in the countryside. ‘Centre’ meant the administrative centre, the place with a higher concentration of magistrates and literati.Thus they preferred Zhaoqing to Canton, because the Governor was residing in Zhaoqing, and Canton was only second choice. [21] The choice of the city was quite obviously connected with the choice of the centre. But these proactive or planned decisions by Ricci should be supplemented by two reactive or guided decisions, which were as important if not more important: many movements were arranged through personal relationships (guanxi) and a number of residences were established because the Jesuits were ex pelled from or not allowed to live in certain places.In both of these decisions the Other played a key role. The concept of guanxi or relationships is central to any understanding of Chinese social structures. It denotes an essential part of network-building within Chinese social life. The many difficulties encountered by Ricci and his companions in trying to establish a residence in various cities are often attributed to the fact that they were foreigners. While this is certainly true, the Jesuits also lacked the necessary guanxi to secure the social resources needed for their goals.They lacked common attributes: they could not refer to a common kinship, locality, religion or examination experience. Chinese society very quickly made the Jesuits aware of the importance of this network building and the originality of Ricci is to have understood it. It took the Jesuits a long time, but after more than ten years they succeeded in acquiring some ‘attributes’. The two most i mportant were their behaving like Chinese literati, and subsequently, the establishment of a network based on common Christian rituals.The role of the Other mediated by guanxi became very important in the move from the south to the north of the country and the establishment of new mission posts, and the Jesuits’ decisions were taken in response to the initiative or circumstances of these guanxi. The case of Michele Ruggieri travelling to Shaoxing (Zhejiang) is a fine example of this reactive or guided decision-making. [22] He was not travelling to Shaoxing because of a planned decision on his part, but rather because he had a guanxi who happened to be travelling to Shaoxing and who wanted to take Ruggieri with him.Another pattern was closely linked to this one. Chinese converts would settle in a new place (or return to their place of origin), expand the network of believers, and then invite a missionary. This pattern became more common as the community of believers increased and came to include some converts of higher social standing (especially after 1600). Here some structures of Chinese administrative life played an important role. Like other literati, Christian literati changed offices regularly (in principle every three years), or returned to their native towns. Their moves determined those of the missionaries.Another way of establishing a community in a given city was also a reaction to decisions made by others: Jesuits decided to settle in one place because they were not allowed to settle in the place of their original choice. In some cases this was even linked to direct expulsion. 3. The use of science in the service of the propagation of faith too was largely determined by the Other, as can be shown in the writings of the Jesuits and their converts. The first presentation of European science was made in the form of curiosities like a clock and prisms, with the result that at the beginning Jesuits were considered as alchemists.The first writings of the Jesuits, however, (i. e. what they wrote with only limited influence of the Other), were not scientific but entirely religious and catechetical in nature. It was due to the quest of Chinese scholars, who could not believe that educated scholars could come from far away, that Ricci engaged himself in composing a Chinese version of the world map he had in his room, in order to show where he came from. [23] A further step was the translation of works on mathematics and astronomy. Many scholars have pointed out that this translation took place in the particular context of Late Ming learning.If Chinese scholars were interested in the science brought by the Jesuits, it was because prior to their arrival Chinese literati had developed an interest in practical learning. The search for ‘solid learning’ or ‘concrete studies (shixue) was a reaction against some intuitionist movements originating from the Wang Yangming school in the late sixteenth century. According t o Wang Yangming (1472-1528), the principles for moral action were to be found entirely within the mind-and-heart (xin) and not outside.In the early seventeenth century, the influential intellectual and political movement of the Donglin thinkers re-established the importance of ‘things in the world’. Officials and scholars searched for concrete ways to save the country from decay. [24] It is this preceding quest that led to the unique interaction between the Chinese literati and the Jesuits. The Jesuits themselves were initially not much interested in translating mathematical works, but in response to the insistence of converts such as Xu Guangqi they again and again undertook this kind of time-consuming and long-lasting activity.Later, this insistence by the Chinese (converts) on practical learning was one of the reasons that prevented Jesuits from engaging in projects such as translating the Bible. Early missionaries such as Ricci had no particular advanced training in sciences (even if they were versed in them) and were not sent to spread scientific knowledge. Only later missionaries with a specific scientific training were sent to respond to the quest of the Other and to guarantee the protection of the Church by the Chinese Court.The acceptance of Western sciences by the Chinese thus confirms a generally agreed-upon interpretation of cultural exchange: when a foreign element is accepted relatively easily by a culture into which it has been introduced, that acceptance is owing to the presence of some internal disposition or movement to accept the new element. What is true in the field of the sciences is true also with respect to the moral teachings of the Jesuits, which were accepted because they fitted the quest of the Donglin thinkers for a heteronomous morality.Moreover, the large-scale translation and publication of Western writings was possible only because the Late Ming had a very developed system of (private) publishing and printing. Thus Jesuits did not have to introduce the printing press. Moreover, by contrast with Europe, there was no pre-printing censorship in China. As a result, the Chinese context enabled the Jesuits fully to put into practice their ‘Apostolate through Books’[25] and freely to express their ideas. 4. Tolerance towards Confucian rites. Here too the cultural imperative of the Other played a determining role (as it did not in Japan).Because of the power of Confucianism as a diffused religion, Christianity, just like Buddhism, Judaism and other marginal religions, had to accept the state orthodoxy and the ritual traditions of Confucianism. The repeated and public rejection of the rites approved by the State (and listed in the Official ‘Canon of Sacrifices’) would have caused the missionaries to be labelled ‘heterodox’ and to be rejected (as happened later to missionaries and papal delegations on several occasions during the Rites Controversy).Yet, during the initial years of the Ricci period there was a whole evolution in their attitude, which became more tolerant due to the presence of the Other. This can clearly be observed from the attitude of the missionaries towards funerals, which were and still are the most important ritual of passage in China. [26] In the beginning, the Jesuits were hardly aware that the importance of funeral rites in China would have consequences for themselves.For instance, when Antonio de Almeida (1557-1591), died in Shaozhou (Guangdong), the Chinese could not understand why Ricci and his companions did not wear a mourning garb. The Jesuits, Ricci says, explained that ‘we religious, when we enter into religion, are as though dead to the world, and therefore we do not make such a thing of this fate. ’ Thus the Jesuits did not accommodate to local customs, except for purchasing a first-class coffin, ‘in order to show to the Chinese the quality of the Fathers, because herein they demonstrate their way of honouring the dead. The major reason for buying a coffin, however, according to Ricci’s explanation, was that they could not bury de Almeida in a church, as would have been done in Europe and the Jesuits did not want to follow the Chinese practice of burying him ‘on a hill far away from the house. ’ Subsequently the coffin was kept in their residence for two years until he was buried in Macao. [27] As far as the specific funerary rituals are concerned, in these early years the Jesuits adopted an approach that can be qualified as purist concerning the Christian tradition and exclusivist with regard to the Chinese traditions.In general, Ricci and his fellow Jesuits were less tolerant in the early stages of their missionary activities than later, though in doing so they did not adhere to a specific regulation. If death occurred, the Jesuits’ priority was to bury the deceased – Chinese Christian or foreign missionary – according to C hristian rites. There was little intention towards accommodation to local – usually Confucian – customs. The abstention from local rites by Christians was seen by the Jesuits as a sign helping to strengthen and spread the Christian faith.Only gradually were some Chinese funerary customs accepted. This happened first through the initiative of the Chinese themselves and was largely due to the network in which the deceased Jesuit or Christian had been involved. As long as this network was very small, the funeral could be limited to an exclusively Christian ceremony. When this network was larger, however, the chances of interaction with Chinese funeral practices increased. It is typical for funerals to be such an ‘open’ ritual.For instance, when the Jesuit Joao Soerio died in Nanchang in 1607, his fellow Jesuits did ‘not give expression to their sentiments, as was usual in China,’ because ‘it did not correspond to our profession. ’ Ye t their friends, dressed in mourning, came to their house to condole with them. These Chinese friends installed a bier and covered it as if his body was there. ‘They made four genuflections, and touched each time with their head the ground. ’ Many are said to have mourned the death of this Jesuit in this traditional way. 28] As the Christian communities continued to grow, the interaction with local rituals increased as well. The death of Matteo Ricci in Beijing in 1610 was a turning point in some ways, because his funeral and burial were the cause of the Jesuits themselves becoming involved in more Chinese funerary customs. The first critical step was the decision about his burial place. At the initiative of a Christian convert, the Jesuits asked the Chinese emperor to offer an appropriate burial ground. This burial in the mainland was contrary to the practice of the burials of Jesuits in Macao until then.Meanwhile, Ricci’s corpse was kept in a traditional Chines e coffin. While some Chinese practices, such as the habit of condolence, were accepted, others, such as the funeral procession, were only applied in a limited way, because the Chinese procession was considered to resemble an act of ‘triumph’ and did not conform to Jesuit ideals of poverty and modesty. On the day of the burial itself, 1 November 1611, all the regular Christian ceremonies were celebrated: the recitation of the Office of the Dead, the funeral Mass, an ecclesiastical procession, and the prayers at the tomb in front of a painting of Christ.But in the end, there were also some Chinese rites: ‘Many days afterwards gentile friends came flocking in to perform their usual rites for the deceased. ’[29] Thus it was the presence of the Chinese that brought gradual change in the hesitant approach by the missionaries. As Johannes Bettray has shown, the Jesuits missionaries were, after thirty years of presence in China, apparently allowing the performance of these particular local customs. [30] Conclusion Looking at Ricci, one can discern several characteristics that can be labelled the ‘Ricci method’.However, this method has too often been presented as the result of the proactive Self, at the neglect of the influence of the Chinese Other. I have tried to show that the role of the Other in the formation of Ricci’s identity is certainly as important as the activity of Ricci’s Self. Though Ricci might have reacted in ways other than he did, in all cases the Other played a decisive role in the reactions he showed. One could even argue that the Other made it possible for Ricci to become who he became. Without the Other, this would not have been possible.