Society Is a Conformist Environment with Technology Essay Example

Society Is a Conformist Environment with Technology Paper The population of modern day society will begin to enter a dark and drab environment where conformity is expected if we continue to rely on technology. With the use Of modern technology controlling lifes basic skills of communication and conducting relationships our basic social skills will be destroyed. With the media trying to model these skills from a screen that we sit in front of we wont be learning about and to debate, discuss or express emotion. What the media is teaching us and what we need to know are very different outcomes, People will be afraid to show emotion, contest n opinion or ask for help if we continue to rely on technology. As seen in the short story The Pedestrian by Ray Bradbury all of our basic skills are being lost to technology. Society will become detached from others because of the overuse of technology and a conformist society will mean no originality, no creativity and no new ideas on how to make our world a better place. The unsaid rules of conformity that everybody seems to follow will lead to manufactured personality and negative effects of peer pressure. How long ill it be before people start to ask themselves if this is how they really want to live life? The exploitation of nature and humans is becoming more and more evident as time evolves. Having a social network in the current era is important as ever, in the work force it is not about what you know it is about who you know, most people will have contacts in their area of expertise who they lean on for advice and assistance but as time evolves having a profile online is just as important. We will write a custom essay sample on Society Is a Conformist Environment with Technology specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Society Is a Conformist Environment with Technology specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Society Is a Conformist Environment with Technology specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer When asking people in todays world, especially managers most will agree that they spend much of their time on their social media site like Faceable, Twitter and Mainstream, these sites have the potential to have a positive influence on society like staying in touch with family and friends overseas on Faceable or finding out what the latest news is on the other side of the world on Twitter, but the way people use these sites at the moment to cyber bully others and share personal information with strangers the users of these sites are vulnerable than ever to exploitation and corruption. The exploitation of humans must stop, as well as online and electronic, exploitation Of nature it is happening all around us. The depletion of natural resources, unsustainable extraction of non-renewable resources and fossil fuels, over-hunting of animals (hunt rabbits, wild birds, fish), intensive agriculture, deforestation, degradation of forest and water pollution and rising temperatures are pressuring the real-world water supply, these factors are making the earth harder to live in and harder to support. The exploitation of humans and nature is dangerous; the population must question whether this will have a positive effect for not only themselves but their children, grandchildren and generations of family to come. It wont be long before the world could be headed to living in a place like Pane in The Hunger Games where citizens are exploited by the government to and children must fight to the death for something as pointless as entertainment, work in districts run by the capitol and follow the level of status and hierarchy among the districts. Society should not accept this and fight against exploitation. The technological development in the world today is a strong as ever; new discoveries are being made each day from the latest idea on how to cure disease to finding a new way to illegally download hours of video, musical and software content. Technology is consuming valuable time and social lives of the general population. The negative effect the use of technology is having on society is extremely evident in The Hunger Games and the gap between who has the power of technology is highly apparent. It is clearly evident that sustaining and promoting technological development in The Hunger Games is an absolute priority for the government. Many things for the games in the film have been mastered by the use of technology. The arena the games are in is manmade, where the environment is planted and planned for the soul purpose of entertainment, the weather and genetically engineered wildlife is designed and made by the modern technology. All of the features are controlled by the governments game makers. This abusive and overuse of technology is where the current population is headed it keeps being used this way.

Human Research Management at Infosys Corporation

Human Research Management at Infosys Corporation Infosys is a global information technology service provider with its headquarters in India. With the rapid rates of its growth and the changing environmental factors, the human resource department faced the challenges of the increased rates of turnover caused by the reduced employees’ satisfaction with their working conditions.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Human Research Management at Infosys Corporation specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This paper will discuss the main precursors of the employees’ dissatisfaction and turnover and the measures which were imposed by the human resource department for the purpose of building the employees’ competencies, retaining the skillful workforce, increasing the levels of their engagement and translating it into the improved performance. Summary of the case Having been ranked as the no. 1 in the Best Employer Surveys in 2001 and 2002, Infosys topple d from these lists and reported a significant decrease in the employee’s satisfaction and commitment in 2003. Recognizing the role of human resources in the company’s organizational success, the top management investigated the main underlying causes of the existing problems and took measures for improving the current state of affairs. Created in 1981 by Narayana Murthy and his six colleagues with borrowed $ 250, after the decades of its hard struggle against the bureaucratic environment and near to death survival, the company was growing at a rapid rate since 1999. The shift from body-shopping to offshoring, moving up the IT value chain, improving the company’s brand equity and ensuring that the company is the employer of choice for the best potential employees, Infosys managed to overcome the difficulties occurring at the initial stage of its development. Ensuring that the salaries of their employees were about 15-20 % higher than offered by the competitors and developing a deep understanding of the workers’ attitudes, the company created favorable working environment. As it was admitted by the company’s HR manager, â€Å"There are three ways in which we add value to the employee: learning value-add through training, emotional value-add through the work environment, and financial value-add through compensation and benefits† (Delong 6). At early 2000s, the skyrocketing number of employees and the external challenges in the form of the US restrictions on the visas for business purposes decreased the employees’ satisfaction and commitment which required the changes in the human resource strategies for handling the issues of the high turnover rates and improving the performance. Value-add through training Realizing the importance of introducing the employees into the Infosys culture, the company developed separate training programs for the college graduates coming to the company as their first working place and the employees coming to Infosys from other companies.Advertising Looking for research paper on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The emphasis upon learnability instead of strong IT backgrounds in the candidates for fulfilling the vacancies allowed Infosys to hire promising specialists and take the advantages of effective hiring processes which was complimented with the following training programs (Birkinshaw 20). Nurturing the talent and competencies was recognized as one of the primary objectives at Infosys in the organizational report of 2008-09 (â€Å"Infosys Sustainability Report 2008-09†). The enrollment of the employees into the training programs aimed at enhancing their professional, leadership and sustainability knowledge has become a common practice at the company. The Special Training Program is a new initiative at Infosys which through the partnership with the Indian universities and balancing their curricula builds the necessary competencies in the students from the socially disadvantaged sectors. This solution can be recognized as an important contribution to the future hiring processes as the company. Value-add through the work environment Along with the training programs aimed at building the competencies in the employees, Infosys takes the initiatives for creating the favorable working environment within the company. The goal of preserving the position of one of the leading employers in the industry was proclaimed as one of the business objectives at Infosys in the organizational report of 2008-09 (â€Å"Infosys Sustainability Report 2008-09†). As it was reported in 2008-09, the programs such as STRAP (Strategic and Action Planning), Voice of Youth (VoY) and Infosys Women Inclusivity (IWIN) are aimed at increasing the employees’ involvement into the decision making processes and creating the favorable working environment and giving serious co nsideration to the diverse needs of the employees’ population. The attempts to support employees with physical disabilities have been made since 2006 when the Equal Opportunities Team was created (â€Å"Infosys Sustainability Report 2008-09†). Moreover, the Family Network Program was launched for the purpose of supporting the employees in balancing their work-personal life issues. Another important objective was facilitating the employee-employer dialogue which was achieved through conducting meetings and surveys focused on the employees’ inclusivity and satisfaction. Sparsh as the company’s intranet allowed fostering the feeling of community and inclusivity among the workforce, whereas Infy TV as the first corporate TV channel in India allowed creating a strong communication platform.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Human Research Management at Infosys Corporation specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The strategies aimed at improving the working environment were helpful for improving the employees’ satisfaction with their working conditions. Still, the rates of turnover at Infosys remained enormously high and reached 14, 568 employees leaving the company during the year 2009 (with the 104,850 as the total number of employees in 2009) (Dey 45). Value-add through compensation Turning the employees’ competencies and engagement into high performance is an important element of the human resource strategy at Infosys. Infosys was one of the first Indian companies to offer the stock options to its employees in 1994 for the purpose of retaining the brightest workforce and reducing the risks of losing them to the US competitors. However, with the skyrocketing number of employees in early 2000s, Infosys replaced its stock options with the higher levels of incentive pay (Birkinshaw 19). Currently, employees can associate their pay with their individual and c orporate performance. Another significant improvement was the change of the promotion model. The promotion policy linked to the specific needs of the organization was one of the major causes of the employees’ dissatisfaction (Delong 9). Developing clear role definitions and the performance assessment scales was a significant step forward in solving this problem. Additional factor aimed at stimulating the employees’ improved performance is the highly competitive working place. Thus, after the performance assessments are completed, every individual is informed on his/her place within the peer group. Combining the collaborative approach with competitive environment within Infosys is expected to foster the workers’ motivation and improving their performance. Conclusion Recognizing the importance of retaining the skillful workforce and adopting the effective hiring strategies for the company’s business performance, Infosys has been making attempts to improve t he working environment, training and compensation patterns for increasing the employees’ satisfaction since the early 2000s. Though the turnover rates within the company still remained rather high as it was reported in 2009, the measures taken for improving the environment, facilitating the employee-employer dialogue and improving the workers’ motivation and engagement were important for improving the existing situation.Advertising Looking for research paper on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Birkinshaw, Julian. â€Å"Infosys: Computing the Power of People†. Business Strategy Review, Winter 2008, 19(4): 18-23. Print. Delong, Thomas. â€Å"Infosys (A): Strategic Human Resource Management†. Harvard Business School, 16 Oct. 2006, Print. Dey, Subhendu. â€Å"Employee Retention- A Key to Organizational Growth†. Globsyn Business School, January-June 2009, 3(1): 45- 49. Print. â€Å"Infosys Sustainability Report 2008-09†. Infosys Corporate Site, 31 March 2009. Web.

Thelma & Louise and Do The Right Thing Movie Review

Thelma & Louise and Do The Right Thing - Movie Review Example Women never had to worry about the absence of home and Thelma & Louise makes this concrete in the concept that their journey is not about finding a home at the end, but escaping the suffocation of patriarchal domination. This domination that begins at home commences from the opening frames of the film. Thelma is quite literally under the thumb of a domineering husband. Louise's situation is revealed to be that of submission to the prevailing order that places men in control and women as servants; she works as a waitress. The film quickly locates home not as a place to which most women would long to return, like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, but as burden to escape. There is nothing specifically peculiar to the early 1990s in this regard; the film could be made today or could it have been made in the 1930s as a Warner Brothers gangster film. As the sign in the original Scarface promises Tony Camonte: The World is Yours. Thelma & Louise, then, fits more closely into the gangster movie genre than the buddy picture as they too come to believe and pursue that ultimately empty promise. In the buddy movie, the men have it all from the beginning. Even if they have nothing, it is still a man's world so they still have the upper hand. The gangster genre presents a man's world as well, but the dominant theme in that genre that is missing from many buddy movies is the establishment of authority. Thelma & Louise do not embark upon a journey to locate home; the climax proves there is no home in America that is not a return to the status quo. Their overwhelming desire is to, just for a brief period, assign domination to the matriarchy. The drive over the cliff is a validation of their acknowledgement that such domination can only be fleeting in America and it is also an acknowledgement of their refusal to return home to the burden of submission to that male domination. Thelma & Louise is such a disturbing portrait of the realities of American society because the two characters are drawn with such complexity. It might be easier to accept their tragic fate if there mere ster eotypes of women commonly referred to as doormats; if they were women who'd been victims of domestic abuse. The fact that Thelma and Louise are intelligent, engaging, beautiful women only serves to underline the fact that patriarchal dominance is systemic in America. Do the Right Thing is the most incendiary, honest, and unflinching portrait of race relations in American film history. Most importantly, the film avoids the trap of suggesting that racial tensions exist entirely within a vacuum constructed on the concept of prejudice as some kind of genetic predisposition. It may be all too easy for viewers of Do the Right Thing to overlook the fact that from what can be gathered, this multiracial community in New York City for the most part seems to have gotten along quite well for decades. The violence escalates not as a result of mindless racial hatred; the encroaching racism is ignited by the disparity in economic power between the haves and have-nots. The opening credits set the stage for a showdown with the subversive lyrics to the rap song "Fight the Power." The power will wind up being Sal, the businessman, and the police who are charged with the protecting the interest of business rather than the people's

Summary and critical analysis of an article i will attach Assignment

Summary and critical analysis of an article i will attach - Assignment Example Miller further asserts that Target meets the needs of its guests by striving to invest in new product development and conducting brand research. Target’s efforts in achieving the best quality have made it a weekly destination for shoppers. The article further introduces Target and its private label brands, asserting that the Minneapolis-based store offers discounts to its guests in recession, making it a hit with customers. Target takes a non-traditional approach to take private label to a brand level. Target’s private label strategy revolves around consumer research, marketing through national ads and in-store displays, and strategic thinking. Jim Hertel, managing partner with Willard Bishop, asserts that Target focuses on its store image rather than price image, which increases its appeal for the consumers. This strategy makes Target work with the slogan of â€Å"Expect More, Pay Less†. In 2009, the company put off its label and bull’s eye image form the household items that the consumers considered as basic. However, it was accepted as a mistake because no other marketer was doing so, and the change was adjusted in the new up & up household products, which were launched in June 2009. But the Target brand name was replaced by the up & up line in these products. Target also promoted couponing in the up & up line that could be printed from the Web. This proved to be a good marketing idea. The couponing was targeted on baby wipes, which attracted the mothers’ interest. Target also moved upscale by marketing brands like Choxie chocolate line. It distinguished Market Pantry from Archer Farms. Target also faces some challenges like rolling out its PFresh food format across it store network. It has to spend more than $2 billion to refurbish 740 stores to make them incorporate the PFresh fresh products collection. The article is an excellent introduction to Target’s private label brands. It

The Comedy Genre Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Comedy Genre - Essay Example The first commercially successful romantic comedy to posit an alternative notion to this underlying concept did not get made until the 1970s. Woody Allen's Annie Hall is dictated by the external social forces of that decade just as much as the screwball comedies were dictated by the economic and social upheaval of the Depression. Annie Hall stakes out a claim for being the first romantic comedy to display the multiple neuroses inherent in a realistic sexual relationship. It is the neuroses of Alvy and Annie that present the obstruction that leads to what becomes the film's most unconventional upending of genre of romantic comedy: the two do not end up together. Until Allen's film the very concept that the romantic leads would not end up together was the definition of a romantic tragedy film. In another Woody Allen film, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Lester, the successful TV producer, manages to boil down the entire essence of comedy into one simple equation: "If it bends, it's funny. If it breaks, it's not funny." Lester's unctuous delivery of his theory of comedy undermines the serious contemplation of its message, but Lester is essentially simplifying one of the elements of the far more philosophically expansive suppositions about what makes a person laugh forwarded by Henri Bergson, who writes of comedy that "Indifference is its natural environment, for laughter has no greater foe than emotion" (Bergson 4). The implication is that comedy must by its very nature be distanced from the natural emotions involved in an otherwise realistic situation. Annie Hall establishes distance from the pain experienced by Alvy and Annie as their relationship crumbles by subverting the mechanics of the romantic comedy genre. The traditional arc of a romantic comedy since the screwball era is one that begins with an antagonistic relationship between the man and woman that evolves into mutual attraction before finally ending with consummation. Annie Hall reverses this trajectory by presenting Alvy and Annie as immediately attracted to one another and ending with their romantic parting. The distancing from the undercurrent of tragedy within the story arc of Annie Hall is also accomplished through its insistence on breaking down another convention of the romantic comedy. More so than any other type of comedy, the pre-Annie Hall romantic comedy eschews any intrusion into its carefully constructed sense of reality. Annie Hall, by contrasts, blasts through the fourth wall and at times also becomes an exercise in surrealism: the scene with the subti tles showing what Alvy and Annie are really thinking as they engage in phony small talk; the scene with at the movie theater at which Alvy magically produces Marshall McLuhan. These devices distance the audience from the heightened emotions at stake; ultimately, it becomes clear this relationship is not just going to bend, but break. Annie Hall becomes the first American romantic comedy to find the comic potential not in two people falling in love, but in what happens after the consummation that climaxed the earlier examples of the genre. Annie Hall may have given rise to a new sub-sub-genre of comedy, the anti-romantic comedy, but external social forces served to collide with

The Effects of Tax Avoidance

The Effects of Tax Avoidance Summary Tax avoidance has been a major menace in many governments worldwide. Therefore, this article will focus on tax avoidance by multinationals and the tax loopholes that motivate this unfair practice among nations. Companies such as Starbucks, HSBC, Google, Barclays bank and Amazon have been accused on more than one occasion of corporate tax avoidance. How do they go about this and get away with it? Do governments favor big corporations at the expense of domestic small and mid-level companies? At the end of this article, it will be clear and evident that indeed tax avoidance is morally wrong unless monitored under stringent government rules and regulations. In essence, this article focuses on the extent to which tax avoidance limits government expenditure (thus government spending) and the extent to which this problem affects the economy and society as a whole. The Moral violation of Tax Avoidance in a nutshell In these hard economic times of recessions and escalating unemployment in Europe and America, governments are implementing budget cuts in an effort to cope with national debts and the aftereffects of this global economic pandemic as a whole. Inflation reports have become the business norm of major mainstream media houses like CNN and BBC. It has become almost impossible to hear of a rise in employment levels or deflation in prices. What this means in essence is that as governments implement budget cuts, they also result to internal borrowing measures such as increasing taxes on goods and services in their respective local markets. At the end of the day, the ordinary hard-working citizen is left to grapple with how to balance an increasingly insufficient paycheck with ever-increasing prices of goods and services. It is because of this reason that tax avoidance shifts the tax burden from the evasive and tricky corporation to the honest middle and low income earning citizen. This is clearly a sign of tax bias practiced in broad daylight. The sad bit about this is that many governments don’t have stringent measures to punish such big ‘untouchables’. Is it that someone within is pulling the strings to ensure that justice isn’t upheld? Are these mysterious government entities ‘sufficiently compensated’ by tax avoiding multi-national corporations for a ‘job well done’? Because the interesting bit about tax avoidance is that it doesn’t amount to tax evasion. For instance, in 2011, the Google firm in the UK had amassed a whooping 395 million pound turnover. But as it turns out, the United Kingdom treasury only received 6 million pounds; an astoundingly tiny fraction of the profits. Similarly, Amazon had sales of 3.35 billion in the same year but contributed a mere 1.8 million pounds to the British Treasury . As absurd as these two randomly picked incidences sound, what these companies did was legal. Essentially, no laws were broken despite the moral absurdity of such obvious, draconian and potentially ‘tax evasive’ actions. Why aren’t there any laws to address such malice? Does it mean that someone is not doing his job and is being paid by these multinationals to keep quiet? Because at the end of the day, money is power thus more money translates to more power; to control, to manipulate, and eventually, to destroy economies and thus the society as a whole. The problem with tax avoiding firms is that their global market presence translates to humongous profits. This of course means too much money and thus too much power. And unfortunately, their power exceeds that of many government officials who are more than willing to do their devious bidding for that ‘extra pound’. Just taxation practice is based on the tenets of fairness and equality across the board not just within the circle of multinationals, but also within economies as a whole. The entire population has got to be convinced that the burden of tax is evenly spread across varying income levels and corporate profits. Tax avoidance by ‘the elite’ however brings about unnecessary tension due to economy class favoritism that’s making someone bear more unjust burden than he ought to. When the citizenry sees such tax injustices, then it’s bound to demand for the law to curb such dubiously lawful menaces. Facts supporting the moral absurdity of tax avoidance and how some countries are curbing the menace Tax avoidance potentially amounts to financial impunity. Incorporated tax laws with gaping holes and obvious loose ends are the biggest aids of tax avoiding multinationals (Samuel, 2005). In essence, firms are subject to business taxes whereas individual income earners are subject to personal taxes. For firms to practice tax avoidance in business taxes, they usually relocate their branches to offshore tax havens thus registering as alien business entities offshore. This makes firms avoid generating income onshore more and more with every alien business subsidiary that they register offshore. Thus, American based Google and Amazon avoid paying taxes in the UK by being classified and registered as non-resident business entities. This entitles them to avoid being taxed not only as resident businesses, but also as resident alien businesses. This is despite the fact that they enjoy all government rights and services similar to resident businesses in the host offshore havens. This in turn makes them pay less taxes to the American tax collector, also known as the IRS. FTSE 100 firms and Banks based in the UK are also key culprits in this menace, with 38% of their subsidiaries located in tax havens. High street banks such as The HSBC, Barclays bank, Lloyds and IBS have a combined total of 1,649 companies (Action Aid). A unanimous FTSE company is claimed to have transferred pricing payments so as to enable a whopping 100 million pound shift from subsidiaries based in developing country into tax havens where a ridiculously lower tax rate is incurred. A lack of stringent regulations on transfer pricing leaves loopholes for tax avoidance as taxable profits move to tax havens without breaking any law. Luxemburg, Liechtenstein principality, Delaware State, Nauru and Cayman islands are in fact the leading offshore tax havens that are menacingly unregulated and house profits that extend to dealings in drugs and arms trade. While in host offshore havens, these multinationals are usually private and secretive in regards to their finances thus raising eyebrows in regards to the integrity of their financial reports. The ignorance, inability and inexperience of developing countries such as China, India and Brazil to deal with the tax avoidance menace further aggravates the situation (Phyllis, 2003). This also brings in the problem of the inability to measure precisely how much worth of tax avoidance has been practiced in these countries. Multinationals are actually taking advantage of this by rapidly expanding their offshore investments to the detriment of offshore haven governments which don’t benefit from such investments as they ought to. For instance, the budget deficit for the Chinese government amounted to 3% of its GDP. Also in Mexico, it’s estimated that a whooping 40% of its entire citizenry might be untaxed (Gori, 2001). This goes to show how the citizenry in itself can be its own worst enemy when it comes to combating tax avoidance within resident businesses (Das-Gupta 1995). India has also been a victim too considering the fact that tax revenue percentage of GDP dropped sharply from 9.8% in 1991 to 8.95% in 1999. Exploding liberalization in these developing countries has sparked massive inflow of foreign investments. In fact, when direct foreign investment recipients are considered by merit, Brazil, China and Mexico have been at the zenith of this list for the past ten years. European, American and Japanese multinationals have been the biggest contributors to this direct foreign investment inflow thus playing key role in the growth of these developing economies. Interestingly enough, the local businesses have not enjoyed the chunk of foreign trade since related multinational firms in these tax havens control a majority of foreign trade (Chan, 1998). They do this by exercising sophisticated profit shifting mechanisms via manipulation of prices to dodge stringent measures enforced upon foreign exchange hence significantly cutting down on uncertain socioeconomic outcomes. In essence, intermediaries and basic raw materials are over invoiced while at the same time exports are underpriced thus enabling record tax avoidances. The Chinese open-door economic reform has made it maintain its enviable position as the greatest absorber of foreign direct investment (FDI) among developing nations to date. For instance, according to the 2002 United Nations Economic report, China got 28% of all FDI flowing into developing nations in 2001. The year 2002 was particularly good for FDI enterprises in China as 409,000 foreign investment enterprises were approved with a net worth of 425 million USD. Consequently, foreign direct investments in China have been key to its economic growth. The evidence is quite clear when it’s considered that 52% of China’s imports and 50% of its exports can be attributed to foreign investment enterprises (FIEs) within the country. Yet strangely enough, a resounding majority of these foreign investment enterprises is reporting record losses despite expanding at an astronomical rate. This automatically entitles them to avoid taxes. Tax avoidance escalated sharply in 2000 with a record $1.22 billion worth of noncompliance being reported ( Ming, 2001). This sparked a sharp rise in tax related audits in 2001. Brazil on the other hand exercises some fairness in taxation by taxing local and alien enterprises similarly. In fact, tax rules and laws applied to limited liability companies and corporations alike are similar irrespective of whether the firm is resident or non-resident. This is because foreign enterprises prefer taking the forms of corporations and limited liability companies. But interesting to note is the fact that limited liability companies aren’t obliged to disclose their financial reports to the public. However, corporations possess the comparative advantage of raising capital through IPOs (Initial Public Offers) of the share capital. Brazil has however come under sharp criticism as having a sophisticated taxing mechanism that hinders its business competitiveness globally. Despite this obstacle, the country has proven to be less naà ¯ve when it comes to dealing with tax avoidance incidences by adopting the principle of ‘If you can’t beat them, then join them.’. This is because it has taken advantage of tax avoidance tendencies by FEIs by offering tax incentives for establishment in distinct underdeveloped regions. For instance, a 50% tax cut on income is offered by the Brazilian government to industrial and agricultural enterprises that establish themselves in the marginalized and less developed North East and Amazon regions. In addition, a firm that sparks development in industrial technology has the right to an incentive on technical services and a 50% tax credit discount on royalties. Expatriates who have achieved the status of Brazilian residents are also obligated to pay a progressive income tax on their worldwide paycheck up to a maximum of 27.5%. This is because taxation upon individuals is implemented on cash basis. A factor to consider is that expatriates are considered residents if they’ve domiciled in Brazil for more than a year. Brazil also tackles tax avoidance by taxing a 25% withholding tax on nonresidents living in tax havens compared to a 15% withholding tax on those who don’t. This is because nonresidents are entitled to royalties, dividends and interest. When it comes to transfer pricing, proper laws that are compatible with OECD have been enacted to ensure the proper determination of import and export prices. Conclusion The rationale behind payment of taxes is that we owe a duty to three entities; namely to the state, the community, and last but not least, to God. Therefore in as much as tax avoidance is morally unjustified and inexplicable, it is distinctively clear that governments worldwide should take the initiative to curb this menace. Better still, governments can take advantage of the situation and enact sound laws that create morally acceptable tax avoidance, such as tax incentives and tax breaks offered by the Brazilian government to develop marginalized areas and to spark innovative development. That way, an equitable tax basis is maintained and society is generally happy to share the burden of tax on the basis of a non-secretive, convincingly just and morally acceptable manner. Work Cited Jesse A. Schmitt Legal Off Shore Tax Havens: How to Take LEGAL Advantage of the IRS Code and Pay Less in Taxes Atlantic Publishing Company, 2008 Phyllis Lai Lan Mo Tax avoidance and Anti-avoidance Measures in Major Developing Economies Greenwood Publishing Group, 2003. Alain Deneault Offshore: Tax Havens and the Rule of Global Crime New Press, Jan 24, 2012 Samuel Blankson Tax Avoidance a Practical Guide for UK Residents Lulu Press Incorporated, 2005. Ronen Palan, Richard Murphy, Christian Chavagneux Tax Havens: How Globalization really Works Cornell University Press, Feb 1, 2013

Comparing Poe’s Fall of the House of Usher and Gardner’s The Ravages of

Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher and John Gardner’s The Ravages of Spring Edgar Allan Poe’s â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher† and John Gardner’s â€Å"The Ravages of Spring† are two literary works which are unique; however, at the same time indistinguishably similar. Poe’s short story is a piece, which characterizes eighteenth century philosophy whereas Gardner’s tale is more modern. In fact, â€Å"The Ravages of Spring† is a story based on Poe’s â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher,† which â€Å"contemporizes its horror† (Fenlon 481). Both stories are inexplicably gruesome and leave a reader overwhelmed by the bizarreness of the tales. Nevertheless it is the strangeness of the two stories that distinguishes them within the literary world and makes Poe and Gardner authors of gothic literature. â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher† and â€Å"The Ravages of Spring† parallel within their eerie tones towards the stormy environments and the supernatural houses wh ich set the basis for both of the stories. However, by the conclusion of both tales Gardner’s remake of â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher† is still a considerably lighter version of Poe’s gothic story. Both stories correlate within their morbid tones as the narrators of the two tales discuss the stormy environment, which plagues the beginning of the stories. Poe characterizes the storm as â€Å"abroad in all its wrath†¦with huge masses of agitated vapour† (Poe 412). Then he goes onto describe an â€Å"unnatural light of a faintly luminous and distinctly visible gaseous exhalation which hugh about and enshrouded the mansion† (Poe 412). Thus, it is evident through Poe’s language that he is exerting a frightening and supernatural tone to describe this malevolent storm. ... ...oe’s tale and successfully does so when analyzing the paralleled tones towards the atmospheres and the houses which plague the two stories. However, when concentrating on the end result of both pieces the works are easily distinguishable from one another. One must still note that â€Å"The Ravages of Spring† is a brilliant reverence to â€Å" The Fall of the House of Usher† and both works are truly thought provoking and ingenious. Works Cited Fenlon, Katherine Feeney. â€Å"John Gardner’s The Ravages of Spring as re-creation of The Fall of the House of Usher.† Studies in Short Fiction. 31.3 (1994): 481-488. Gardner, John. â€Å"The Ravages of Spring.† The King’s Indian: Stories and Tales. New York: Ballantine, 1974: 39-71. Poe, Edgar Allan. â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher.† Tales and Sketches. Cambridge: Belknap, 1978: 397-417. 4452 - 1 – Marlow Engl. 12.37

Hung Liu: The Chinese-American Artist Essay

â€Å"The mind changes, the word changes, time doesn’t stay still, history is a verb, it is ongoing, there is no past tense, future tense, history is constant† Hung Liu told interviewer Rachelle Riechart (Riechart). Hung Liu is a Chinese woman who was born in Changchun, China in 1948. She was born during the age which we call the Chinese Cultural Revolution, which heavily impacted her life. She lived in China for 36 years and then left for the United States. She now resides in Oakland, CA, where she teaches art at Mills College (â€Å"A World of Art†). A lot of her artwork is based on photographs and memories she has from China and photographs she’s taken in the United States. She takes photographs of pictures, repaints them, usually oil paint on canvas, and slightly alters them by leaving washes and drips to show how history can’t be remembered fully from a picture. She also does artwork for American history such as a piece she did in South Carolina for Chinese people who owned laundry mats (Riechart). I find most of Hung Liu’s artwork to be very historical and personal, because most of her artwork comes from her own photographs. I’d like to focus on how she addresses the struggles of being an immigrant throughout the country, how Hung Liu maintains her cultural traditions in almost all of her artwork, and how she defines the word â€Å"history†. Hung Liu came to the United States during the 1980s, which was a rough time to be Asian in the United States. During this time we were having a recession and many auto industries were going out of business due to Japanese imports. Aside from that, it was not too long after the Vietnam War had ended. Many factors contributed to the racism targeted against Asian-Americans. Although it was the Japanese making the cars and the Vietnamese during the war, ignorant Americans would rationalize by saying they all look the same and would blame Chinese, Filipinos or any Asian people. There was a man named Vincent Chin in 1983, one year before Hung Liu immigrated to the United States, who was beaten to death with a baseball bat by a white man named Ebens, because Ebens believed Vincent Chin and his people were at fault for the fall of American auto industry. â€Å"One dancer heard Ebens say explicitly ’It’s because of you motherfu*kers that we’re out of work’† was the accusation he made. Vincent was a young man who was about to get married in a few weeks before he was murdered. His father was a Chinese immigrant who worked hard and owned laundry mats, and later served in the military for his citizenship and was later able to bring his wife and adopted son, Vincent, to the free land (Yung). Hung Liu worked hard with extensive research to find that her fellow Chinese people who had been living in America before her had owned many laundry mats and were very involved in the laundry business. When asked by a college in South Carolina to create a piece for them, she designed clothing and had her family create them and this piece later turned into a memorial for the laundry businesses in the South (Riechart). Figure 1: â€Å"Forbidden City† Figure 1: â€Å"Forbidden City† Another struggle that Hung Liu addressed that might have affected her life in California was that in the 1800s, Chinese women were shipped in and used as prostitutes around San Francisco for miners (Tedford). In 1991 Hung Liu painted the â€Å"Forbidden City†, shown in figure 1, which shows exposed women in the Forbidden City of China. I feel like this painting is called Forbidden for multiple reasons, one being the Palace in China was known as the Forbidden City, and also the painting seems â€Å"Forbidden† because of the naked women on the picture. Also I think that because San Francisco is known as â€Å"The City†, the Forbidden City could refer to San Francisco as well. This piece addresses her understanding of the difficulty of being a Chinese-American woman at the time. Hung Liu is very proud of her ethnical background and is not afraid to show it. Almost all of her work has Chinese culture in it, from the scenery such as buildings or flowers to something smaller like calligraphy. A good example is the Forbidden City piece that I previously mentioned. It addresses an issue that originated in California, but it shows the scenery of a Chinese Palace. She could have done this because the issue probably affects some people in China. She also does some installation art called â€Å"Resident Alien†, show in figure 2. This piece has Chinese people doing Tai Chi, and has Chinese pillars with calligraphy on them. Also it has two piles of fortune cookies. It is believed that the fortune cookie represents a â€Å"sexual slang for Chinese women† (Tedford). Overall, these two pieces really incorporate the Chinese culture in Hung Figure 2: â€Å"Resident Alien† Figure 2: â€Å"Resident Alien† Liu’s art and show that she loves to express her culture. Figure 2: â€Å"Resident Alien† Figure 2: â€Å"Resident Alien† Figure 3 : â€Å"Refugee: Woman and Children† Figure 3 : â€Å"Refugee: Woman and Children† The most distinctive characteristic Hung Liu has is the way she defines the word history. The way she sees it is that although you can have a memory from a picture, you can’t remember every detail from that picture, such as the words you spoke that second or what happened exactly 20 seconds before that picture was taken, or even 20 seconds after. There are always missing puzzle pieces with history. She also believes history is a verb, because it is always happening and always going. History never ends and is always being made. The way she depicts her attitude towards history in her artwork is by leaving washes and drips of paint when she repaints a photograph. These washes and drips indicate the incompleteness of the photograph. The drips are the fuzziness of memory (Riechart). Hung Liu uses this technique in the majority of her artwork and is very famous for it. The painting I chose to show her historical artwork is titled, â€Å"Refugee: Woman and Children†, shown in figure 3. I chose this painting because it shows what was probably common for Chinese women who were refugees during times of war and were forced to leave China. You can also see all the drips she made on the painting, which she uses to show the unknowing of what was going on during that photograph. Hung Liu is a great artist. She’s well aware of the struggles of being a Chinese Immigrant in America where violent actions were taken on all Asians. Regardless of the risk it takes to be an Asian-American, she still proudly represents her Chinese culture in her art pieces, and she teaches the Chinese history through her art. She’s created her own style and uses a drip technique to show how she defines history, and to show from her point of view how she sees the world and she uses photographs to show things that actually happened and were caught on camera. Overall, she is a very influential woman to other Asian-Americans and aspiring artists.

Circuit Breaker Abstract Essays - Electrical Wiring, Free Essays

Circuit Breaker Abstract Essays - Electrical Wiring, Free Essays Circuit Breaker Abstract A circuit breaker was examined to determine how it works. Basically, it is designed to disconnect the current if the current passing through the breaker is higher than the allowable current. Its main parts consist of a switch, connecting pads, and the disconnect device. Since the breaker consists of many individual parts, the only improvement found was to combine some of the parts into a single part. Introduction Our group dissected a thirty-amp household Circuit-breaker. Its purpose is to protect electrical appliances from being damaged though excessive currents. A circuit breaker limits the amount of current that may safely enter a household electrical system via a predetermined amperage rating. It is placed in series between your house and the provided electricity. Any current in excess of the rated current amount will trip the circuit breaker in to a non-conducting or open path condition. The closed path is maintained until either magnetism or thermal expansion causes the circuit to trip. Device Description The circuit breaker has several features that are worth noting in the design discussion. First is its ability to detect various types of loading situations. The breaker can not only open a circuit in response to a current spike, but can also react to a sustained moderate current draw, just above its rated current. The circuit breaker also has an easily resetable 3-position switch, and various internal safety features such as spark arrestors and cavity vents. Operation of the circuit breaker is simple, but utilizes complex mechanisms. Essentially there are to main internal mechanisms; the trigger and the switch. The trigger is the device that senses the abnormal current load. A sharp spike in current will cause a magnetic field to form in the trigger, releasing the switch. A slightly elevated, but more constant current draw through the breaker will cause the bi-metal composition of the trigger mechanism to deflect in an arc like manner, which is also capable of releasing the switch. This reaction may take a longer amount of time to open the circuit, but is designed to provide the user with a short time of extended current draw through the circuit before the breaker opens. The switch, which is activated internally by the trigger or externally by the user, simply opens or closes a set of contacts which complete the circuit. The switch can be set to open or closed from the outside of the breaker's case, but can only be set to the tripped position internally, as a results of the trigger mechanism. Once the breaker has been tripped internally, it must be reset externally by switching it off, and then back on. The features enable the breaker to do several jobs at once, eliminating the need for multiple elements in the circuit. For example, it provides the user with an easily assessable on/off switch, fault protection against current spike, and fault protection against heavy current draw. The design of the trigger mechanism allows one internal part to the job of two, as does the switch, which by design can be shut off either internally or externally. Some problems that come to light with these features include a limited service life and expensive manufacturing. Limited service life is a function of build quality. Many internal parts move without precise surface preparation or lubrication, indicating that repetitive motion could wear out the assemblies. Several internal springs may also wear out over time. And, because there are may small parts that fit integrally with each other, manufacturing costs may be inflated. Discussion It has been discussed that the circuit breaker has many good design points, such as double fault protection, a manually switchable mode, and built in safety features to prevent spark ignition and meltdown. And it seems that there aren't many undesirable features of the unit, possibly with the exception of cost. Because of the complexity of the inner workings, manufacturability is more difficult, thus raising costs. A small inspection was done to determine if any parts could be eliminated or combined to reduce the build cost, but no immediate solutions were identified. It appears that all attempts to improve or simplify the device have been implemented and maximized, leaving the only avenue for complexity reduction to be a change in application for the part. Conclusion A common household thirty amp circuit breaker was dissected in lab this week. It consisted of hard plastic, moving metal parts, and two springs (Figure 1). The circuit is placed in series between an electrical power source such as Georgia Power and the fuse box or beginning of a home's electrical system. The circuit breaker operates via two mechanisms. The circuit is

Australia2 essays

Australia2 essays Australia has changed hands a lot throughout its history. From being inhabited by the aborigines, which had been there for around forty thousand years, until the British claimed it. However the British were not the first to come across this continent, they were just the first countries to see it as useful. The Dutch were seeking new land and trade in the East Indies, and found that sailing along the coasts of Africa and India too much longer than if the went due east and the cut up. However, the Dutch Vessel, Duyfken, first sighted the coast of modern day Australia in 1606 when it did not turn north in time. In 1642-43 Able Tasman was looking for new land south of Batavia, and shifted course to avoid bad weather. In doing so, he ran into the stormy west coast of Tasmania which he named VanDiemens Land. He also sailed eastward after that and discovered New Zealand. All of these discoveries revealed only desolate deserts and hostile natives. It wasnt until 1770 when James Cook discovered the long avoided east coast that it was seen as a possible resource. The British soon lost their American colony, where they had sent some of their prisoners, and now began to consider Botany Bay, Cooks first landfall, as the next penal colony (Brander, 18). The First Fleet left sail from Portsmouth, England in May 1787 heading for Australia under the command of Authur Phillip (http...ozramp). Phillip and his crew landed on January 26, 1788, which is now celebrated as Australia Day (Australia). There were prisoners that were also aboard the ship that landed in Australia. Huddled in the bowels of the ships were 772 terrified convicts- 568 men, 191 women, and 13 children (Brander, 15). Many of the crimes that they were charged with crimes that would be thought of as trivial by todays standards (Australia). They landed in Botany Bay, and approximately forty people had perished during the jo...

International Relations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

International Relations - Essay Example Realizing the fact that this menace needs to be tackled collectively, a coalition of 136 countries came into existence to fight this new international manifestation. International terrorism can be referred to as the violent activities carried out in a country by any rival country either by means of physically participating in terrorism or by supporting or exploiting the local individuals through brain-washing or the financial support. It is considered as a new form of warfare thereby avoiding physical contact with rival country, hence ensuring safety of men and material that is likely to be damaged during physical war (Netanyahu and Mekhon, 1981). International terrorism is almost same in tactics and techniques like normal terrorism except for the one fact that it is operated from across the geographical borders. It involves use of terrorism across international borders for the purpose of destabilizing the borders or weakening the solidity among the people and their homeland. The un- guarded borders and un-checked cross-border activities make the terrorism comparatively easier. However the effectiveness of international terrorism can be controlled by a number of means. The most important tool available with terrorist organizations is the media. As in case of hijacking, the interviews of hijackers as well as the victims, broadcasted on media support the terrorists to achieve their goals by communicating their agendas to the world as well as showing helplessness of the government as well as security forces. The unrestricted access to media can help in sabotaging the terrorists’ motives and not letting them project themselves as brave people who are fearless to death (Panday, 2006). Terrorism is a global issue, which can only be tackled by mutual support of most of the countries. At present, United Nations is the only organization which is playing its role in bringing countries against terrorism on one grid and fighting the terrorism as a combined dilemma. H owever, there are certain measures which can be adopted at individual country level to minimize the effects of international terrorism. Pre-emption is one of the means to avoid terrorism which is only possible by gathering requisite information about identity, goals, objectives and likely targets of the terrorists and subsequently countering them pre-emptively. Once a state has been proved to be terrorism sponsor state, it should be isolated by international community and be forced to create unfavourable situation for the terrorists operating from their land. The other passive measures that can be taken to prevent the international terrorism, once they have been identified, are by disrupting their supplies and communications. Thereby rendering the terrorists helpless and without sufficient resources to generate any terrorist activity. Besides gathering the information about international terrorists and isolating its sponsoring states, there is a need to develop emergency response ca pability, so as to react promptly to any terrorist situation / activity that have taken place. The main objective of this response should be the damage control along with denying the terrorists’ access to unchecked media. The outcomes from such counter actions must be shared with international community highlighting the hand or support behind the terrorists and they should be brought to international court of justice instead of merely making a hue and cry

English Academic Purpose Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

English Academic Purpose - Essay Example The following is a research study that focuses to establish of the various practices adopted by the English community in communicating amongst themselves and the extent upon which some of the media links are mostly favored against others. Further, the research study seeks to denote on the prevailing differences amongst the media links and the prevailing differences that favor or harbor involvement into communicating via a range of the available social platforms. The subject of social media importance in human lives is critical and the British population has consequently reflected positive involvement in the digital world of communication (White, King, and Tsang, 2011:56). Therefore, the following research study establishes on the implemented approaches to ascertain and resolve the controversies on whether the social media is beneficial or harmful to the human society, and precisely, the British society. Literature review The research study on social media shall maintain precise focus on the influence of social media. The researchers shall focus on implementing the various findings that different study samples of the research expedition denote as feedbacks to the various questions asked in the questionnaire. During the research expedition, the researchers shall focus on establishing the various social networks used, the number people using these networks and the networks that seem to be more significant to others (Richardson, Gosnay, and Carroll, 2010:34). The study shall focus on the frequency of access to the social networks, and probably the reasons for using certain media through questionnaire interviews. The figure below establishes of the prospective extend of involvement by online users upon various social sites. Fig.1 showing the marginal share difference on involvement Eventually, the study shall establish of the successes of the research expedition and depict the findings of the study process reflecting from an analysis to the questionnaire findings. F urther, the study establish an analytical approach on the study findings, employ on the methodological and recommendation approaches of social practices and the extent at which the findings suit the desired findings of the study. Finally, the research shall evaluate on the entire process of establishing whether the social media is beneficial or harmful, and the corrective measures of whose use shall lead to the establishment of appropriate resolutions. Methodology to the social media research With the prevalence and availability of the social media communication devices, the research process seemed to be applicable as the population exercising the use of social media as a mode of communication was relatively high (Poore, 2012:53). The use of questionnaires to interview the prospective sample population of study remained the most accurate tool to conducting the research as the questions did not focus on personal issues, but rather focused on general issues as to whether the social me dia was beneficial or harmful to the society (Qualman, 2011:46). Therefore, the data collection method laws primarily the questionnaire as it established precise information instead of focusing on other researchers’