the fifties and sixties essays

the fifties and sixties essays The Unliberated Female the lives of women in the Menzies years, women in the workforce, women in the home The days when women in Australia were the property of their husbands or fathers, were not allowed to vote or work outside the home and were treated as inferior to men are gone. So is the rule of thumb which legally entitled a husband to beat his wife with a stick as long as it was no thicker than his thumb. Even though that the belief in equality for men and women is now part of our law it wasnt till in the fifties, sixties and even seventies till attitudes towards the role of women began to change on a large scale. Until the end of WWI most people thought a womens place was in the home. It was expected that they would take care of their husband and children. While the men were the breadwinners of the family. It was also thought that women were the property of their husband or father. They werent allowed to vote or work outside the house and were thought to be inferior to men. Women were thought to be child-rearers and home makers. The home was the womans domain, where she would work for hours doing boring routine jobs but this was bound to change due to a host of new appliances and gadgets being invented since 1920 to help ease the strain household chores. In the laundry the copper boilers and hand cranked wringers were replaced by washing machines. Electric vacuum cleaners and polishers, pressure cookers, electric irons, kettles and sewing machines were all common items. These appliances made women feel as if there was not enough to do at home to fill up the whole day. However during this period women did a lot of unpaid work to help the men overseas. After the war only a handful of women kept their jobs during the depression but were paid less than men. WWII was a turning point in women paid work, as there was a shortage of labourers because of the men at war. Women worke...

Drug and Alcohol Abuse Essay Example

Drug and Alcohol Abuse Essay Example Drug and Alcohol Abuse Paper Drug and Alcohol Abuse Paper Essay Topic: 8th Grade Drug and alcohol abuse is indeed a serious problem among many young people nowadays. This may be proven by statistical information and examples including the ones below. In spite of all the researches conducted on the effects of alcohol on teenagers, as well as, reasons stated why alcohol should be avoided by teenagers, it still cannot be denied that there are countless teenagers engaged in binge drinking (Sound.. n. p. ). Allow me to share with you the following extremely alarming statistical information: Forty percent of teenagers drink to address their being upset; twenty five percent, on the other hand, do so because they are alone; and another twenty five percent drink to manage being bored (Sound.. n. p. ). Furthermore, every teenager spends approximately spends $500 on alcoholic beverages (Sound.. n. p. ). Also, according to researchers, there are eight teenagers who die of alcohol-related accidents each day and that more than 300,000 teenagers will eventually die of alcohol-related occurrences (Sound.. n. p. ). Moreover, sixty percent of teenagers were discovered to be drunk when they were diagnosed to also have a sexually transmitted disease (Sound.. n. p. ). In addition, almost forty percent of teenagers who died because of drowning were drunk at the time of accident (Sound.. n. p. ). Plus, almost thirty two percent of teenagers who were arrested for unlawful behavior were under the influence of alcohol (Sound.. n. p. ). Last but not least, eighty six billion dollars go to waste each year because of consumption of alcohol, health care costs, accident costs, etc (Sound.. n. p. ). Aside from statistical information, there are also a few examples that may prove that alcohol abuse is indeed a problem among the youth nowadays. There were countless alcohol-related risk behaviors among the youth, especially college students and this include: 1) the high percentage of students who rode 1 or more times in a vehicle driven by a drunk driver; 2) the high percentage of students who drove a vehicle 1 or more times under the influence of alcohol; 3) the high percentage of students who had their first drink even before they entered college; 4) the extremely high percentage of students who had five or more drinks of alcohol in a row (National.. n. p. ). The aforementioned only show that alcohol is really a problem among the youth (National.. n. p. ). Meanwhile, the same is true with drug abuse as well. It is a problem as well. Let’s see why as we read and absorb the following examples: First, almost 26 % of high school seniors are engaged in drug abuse according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy (Office.. n. p. ). Second, approximately 15% of 8th graders and almost 23% of 10th graders are into drugs (Office.. n. p. ). Third, in 2001, it has reported that even 12-year old young individuals at least use marijuana once a month (Office.. n. p. ). Fourth, admission rates for treatment of marijuana abuse actually increased in almost all the states except for about nine (Office.. n. p. ). Of the total admissions, approximately, 91 % are young individuals aged 12 to 18 (Office.. n. p. ). Fifth, in 1998, there were more than two thousand six hundred deaths resulting from metamphetamine abuse and there were approximately fifty deaths because of abuse of ketamine (Office.. n. p. ). Sixth, young people who are heavy cigarette users and serious alcohol drinkers are most likely to be involved in drug abuse as well (Office.. n. p. ). Last but not least, fifty seven percent of the youth claim that obtaining marijuana is very easy, in fact they claim that can get that without even leaving their neighborhood (Office.. , n. p. ). References National Institutes on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Alcohol-Related Risk Behaviors Among Youth. 2003. n. a. 09 June 2007 niaaa. nih. gov/Resources/DatabaseResources/QuickFacts/Youth/default. htm Office of National Drug Control Policy. Drug Use Trends. n. d. n. a. 09 June 2007. whitehousedrugpolicy. gov/publications/factsht/druguse/ Sound Vision Foundation, Inc. Statistics on Teens. 2007. n. a. 09 June 2007 soundvision. com/Info/teens/stat. asp

Knowledge management approach Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Knowledge management approach - Essay Example Knowledge management implies any activity regarding the capture and the diffusion of knowledge within the organization. A key component of KM is to provide access to stored knowledge components in order to improve decision-making and facilitate knowledge acquisition by the user. The present essay is an attempt to introduce this innovative capital of modern organisations in a simple and lucid style. In the essay, the writer first, tries to distinguish the related concepts in the area of knowledge such as data, information etc, which are often misunderstood (used interchangeably with) as knowledge. In addition, an attempt is made to introduce the two approaches to knowledge management that capture and utilize knowledge. The essay prepared to examine the different of these two approaches. Specifically, it attempts to narrate the definition of these approaches and portrays both advantages and disadvantages of these two approaches. Finally, rather most importantly the report demonstrates how to apply theoretical concepts of knowledge management to NASA's JPL case study. One of the essentials of an effective knowledge management system is that the system must be able to distinguish knowledge from data and information so that information overload can be reduced/eliminated and its efficiency can be improved. An efficient knowledge management system accepts only those data that are relevant, timely, reliable and accurate. In the words of Liew (2002) data means the collection of facts or events and it is comprised of the basic, unrefined and unfiltered information, which are mostly useless. But, information is more refined data that is useful and meaningful for an analysis and decision making. In contrast, knowledge resides in the human brain and it happens when human experience is applied to data and information, therefore, knowledge is internalized which absorbed and understood by the human mind. In the modern business context, knowledge management can have a lot to perform to attain a competitive edge and thereby create value to the organisation. Knowledge management There are many interpretations as to what exactly knowledge management is all about. The definition put forward by Quintas P., Lefrere P. and Jones is worth notable in this context. They define knowledge management as "a continuously process of managing knowledge in order to ensure that knowledge is available when and where needed and can be acquired both from external sources and internal sources" (Quintas et al, 1997). It is worthwhile here to mention the definition developed by NASA for knowledge management. NASA defines "knowledge management as getting the right information to the right people at the right time and helping people create knowledge and share and act upon information in ways that will measurably improve the performance of an organization and its partners" (NASA, 2009). The procedures by which the objectives of KM can be accomplished include the following: As far as possible, everyone connected with knowledge management system should disclose what he/she knows and thereby facilitates knowledge sharing and its reuse. This will allow others to know when and where knowledge is available. Knowledge is made available at the time of decision making and it is the duty of the concerned personnel in an organisation that knowledge is

The CCPI, ICCS, FutureGen Project and FutureGen 2.0 Project Essay - 233

The CCPI, ICCS, FutureGen Project and FutureGen 2.0 Project - Essay Example It was established to retrofit an existing Illinois coal plant and ensure carbon dioxide emission reduction by 90 percent. The project aimed at massively reducing carbon emission by utilizing safe pipeline technology to ship carbon dioxide and permanently store it underground in a designated storage site located near Ashland (Folger, 2012). FutureGen projects were viewed as the solution to ensuring clean future while using dirty fossil-fuel plants, thus received enormous backing from potential private investors to boost the clean technology. However, numerous challenges rocked the project and would never let it reach its maturity stage and deliver the much-anticipated results of reducing the emission of carbon dioxide by 90 percent. According to Folger (2012), one of the challenges that led to the failure of the FutureGen projects is increasing production costs. The existing technologies for capturing carbon dioxide did not cost cost-effective in the dimension of giant power plants ( Folger, 2012). Another challenge that led to the failure of FutureGen projects was development issues surrounding the project and inadequate incentives for private investors to venture into the projects. The sluggish development in the projects, both new and old, can be attributed to the laxity on part of the private investors to inject their finances into the project. This is because private investors were risk averse, especially because of the uncertainty surrounding the future of the projects and high project costs (Folger, 2012). According to Marxa et al. (2007), uncertainty makes people wary of the future. It was a huge challenge to secure funding from the private sector to meet the increasing cost of the project. Time constraint was also a major challenge for successful implementation of the project that was proving to be over the budget and competition from other countries made the project appear less feasible.

Ritzers Macdonaldization Essay Example for Free

Ritzers Macdonaldization Essay In this essay, I aim to explore the term ‘McDonaldization’ dubbed by esteemed Sociologist and University of Maryland Professor, George Ritzer, to correlate his findings with those of the English Sociologist Les Back and then ultimately examine the effect both Globally and Locally. Ritzer’s concepts are fundamentally built around the theories of Max Weber, a German Sociologist who first established the idea of ‘Rationalization’. More specifically, four headings were used to define this shift in the organizational structure of society: Efficiency, Calculability, Predictability and Control of new technologies increasing the productivity of the modern world. I will explore the relevance of these headings later in this essay. Weber maintained it was bureaucratization that contributes to this advance in achieving the â€Å"optimum means to ends† (Ritzer, 2008, 25). The bureaucracy as Weber defines it seems to be the prototype for flawless corporate functionality. â€Å"A bureaucracy is a large-scale organization composed of a hierarchy of offices. In these offices, people have certain responsibilities and must act in accordance with rules, written regulations, and means of compulsion exercised by those who occupy higher-level positions† With an operating structure as tightly knit as described above, it is no surprise that the paradigm of formal rationality according to Ritzer, McDonalds, is one of the most envied business models in the world. 50 million customers a day will find restaurants in 118 nations (Ritzer, 2008, 3). Thousands of businesses strive to emulate their successful rational framework yet fail to conquer, such as the fast-food giants, MacDonald’s. Franchising at an unbelievable rate, McDonalds profits are being maximized year after year as it expands worldwide. A British author Martin Plimmer captures the mastery of their expansion â€Å"There are McDonalds everywhere. There’s one near you, and there’s one being built right now even nearer to you† (Ritzer, 2008, 2). It is on the basis of this exorable power and infectious growth that Ritzer lays his ‘McDonaldization’ theory. â€Å"The process by which the principals of the fast food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as the rest of the world†. Ritzer, 2008, 1). Another aspect to this notable commercial structure is McDonaldization’s propensity to de-humanize. Teamed with bureaucratization, McDonaldization has the leverage to spread to modern society on a whole. Fears that people will be consumed by such a heavy emphasis on the rational and technical benefits of practicality and efficiency, destroying the human spirit and reducing them to nothing more then â€Å"a small cog in a ceaselessly moving mechanism† (Macionis and Plummer, 2005:143) as rational globalization expands. Sociologist Les Back puts forward the positive and negative influences of the flourishing technological network on globalisation in his monograph ‘Local/Global’. The concept of a global village; the idea that through new technologies and new converging forms of economy and political state that the world is shrinking and diminishing the importance of peoples differences (Back, 1998, 77) is one that can be both greatly agreed upon or just as easily denied, in my opinion. Firstly, It cannot be argued that one of McDonald’s keys to it’s worldly success was it’s overt American-style image, which many people outside the United States Of America hankered after. The book ‘Golden Arches East’ by James L. Watson describes vividly McDonalds highly anticipated entry into East Asia â€Å"Prior to McDonalds opening in Beijing, the company’s name was already popular among trendy consumers and it was only natural that, when the first restaurant was opened in Beijing in April 1994, thousands lined up for the experience. † (Watson, 1997, 48). Not only did this fascination generate billions of capital for McDonalds (and other fast-food diners such as KFC, Pizza hut etc. ) steering revenue away from Asia’s own food industries but sociologically speaking, the influx of American-Style escapism in which the people of Asia were immersing themselves in spawned a question of multinationals refusal to localize. Are Hamburgers on the Champs-Elysees or Chicken Nuggets by the Grand Canyon really necessary or is it just corporate extremism exercising their capability to the nth degree? Somehow I’m not convinced it is a case that McDonalds cuisine is so delicious that we physically need to have it within reach at all times, particularly in such countries such as France, Italy or Spain, where gastronomy is paramount to their local culture. Back’s theory on this type of globalisation seems a lot more simplistic. He argues that â€Å"globalization can go hand in hand with the commercialization of exotic local cultures† (Back, 1998, 74) but I ask to what extent is this local commercialization succeeding? Chiefly global multinationals are apparent in the rapidly developing worldwide industries, leaving little to zero space for contained business ventures to gain momentum. Although Back does recognize an effective uses of localization in advertising imagery to which these trans-national companies happily comply. â€Å"Advertisers are willing to integrate all kind of notions of difference as long as they serve their purpose† (Back, 1998, 73). A fantastic example is that of the recent McDonald’s advertising campaign, which was specifically intended for a distinctly Irish audience. Johnny Logan, a well-known Irish performer appearing to many different characters with strong colloquial Irish accents, pulls in on regional interest. Vernacular phrases such as â€Å" ye plank.. † â€Å".. sound.. †and â€Å".. free gaff.. † are used, unmistakably local and familiar to McDonalds’s Irish consumers. Back relates the decreasing size of global margins to advances in technologies, which of course is impossible to deny. Although communication overseas and intercontinental conveyance is almost taken for granted at this stage, Back reiterates the speed at which this occurs and the inter-dependence this signifies. â€Å"International flows of technology and media hardware strengthen the dependency relationship between the West and the former colonial peripheries and promote a form of cultural homogenization† `(Back, 1997, 72) In spite of the fact that many of Ritzer’s examples are American the concept of this uniformity is at the heart of his writing and falls under the four heading’s of McDonadization aforementioned. Predictability is one of the devices multinational corporations have taken under their wing in the development of a McDonaldized framework of business. Globally, these giant organizations do not start at the bottom when it comes to extending their trade name abroad and casting their image over seas. â€Å"Wal-Mart bought out 120 stores in Canada in 1994 when it purchased the Wertkauf GmbH hypermarket chain in Germany in 1997, Similarly, when Starbucks moved into the U. K. n 1998, it acquiresd the already existing Seattle Coffee Company and refitted it’s 82 stores as Starbucks outlets†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (Klein, 2005, 139) Specifically many coffee shops have undergone ‘Starbucksization’ to the point where any coffee shop in the western world could fail to posses a hint of originality. Insomnia, Costa Coffee and increasingly McDonalds contribution to the market McCafe, are but a few of the cafe chains that are adapting to the modern competition. In our local environment a comprehensible instance of McDonaldization would be the excessive franchising of Spar shops in Ireland, eplacing another family corner shop as it unfurls over the country. As consumers we’ve experienced the components of Weber’s ‘Rationalization’ and Ritzer’s McDonaldization in its plainest form. The efficiency of these stores is unrivalled, often containing Juice Bars, Off Licences, Delicatessens and Coffee shops, a conglomerate of effectiveness under one roof. Calculability by the selection of staff who work at each counter, pricing, weighing and recommending items for purchase. Chiefly the predictability of a Spar shop would almost be similar to what one would expect of a handful of McDonalds’, the flooring, the lighting and the layout are all but slightly in difference nationwide. Finally, these environments are controlled not only by the presence of Security guards at the entrance to many branches but they are hi-tech and forward thinking in technologies in contrast with many of there older competitors, featuring Automatic doors and self check-out services. In conclusion, both George Ritzer and Les Back have some shared views and some conflicting one’s on the matter of globalization and how it affects us directly and indirectly. Ritzer’s theory of McDonaldization worked alongside many of Back’s viewpoints on technologies, in particular as regards the dimension of control. Finally, the concepts of Global and Local, I believe will be disputed not only by both Ritzer and Back as the relationship worldwide decreases in size with the introduction of further connectivity when does the benefits of this begin and cease.

The Oppression of Women by Society in The Yellow Wallpaper

The Oppression of Women by Society in The Yellow Wallpaper "The Yellow Wallpaper" is about a creative woman whose talents are suppressed by her dominant husband. His efforts to oppress her in order to keep her within society's norms of what a wife is supposed to act like, only lead to her mental destruction. He is more concerned with societal norms than the mental health of his wife. In trying to become independent and overcome her own suppressed thoughts, and her husbands false diagnosis of her; she loses her sanity. One way the story illustrates his dominance is by the way he, a well-know and established doctor who should know better than to diagnose a family member, diagnoses her as having a temporary nervousness condition and what he prescribes for her illness, which is bed rest. Without asking her, he takes her to their summer home to recover from an illness that he doesn't believe she has. He tells her there is "no reason" why she feels the way she does; she should get rid of those "silly fantasies." In saying this to her, he is treati ng her like a child who doesn't really know how she feels, thus making her doubt herself. When she tries to tell him what she needs, she is completely shut out and ignored. "I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus-but John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad." This statement has a two-fold meaning, in the first part of the sentence he reveals part of his insecurity problem. He is not interested in getting her help because he doesn'... ...environment she was placed in, and to not look for outside influences to help strengthen her, which was an indication of his insecurity. She accepted the environment that she was placed in but begin to slowly change it into what she wanted. Even though her husband really believed that he was helping her, he was actually hurting her. He was stuck in society's thinking that woman wanted to be taken care of and thought that, that's what he was doing. He could not understand why she began to react violently and angrily to the environment in which she was placed. Only by confronting her fears of what society and her husband would think about her, did she allow herself to become free. Once she achieved her independence, she realized that she didn't need to rely on anyone else but herself for her survival. By refusing to be submissive, she traded her sanity for independence.

Is Advertising Harmful? Essay

For many years when it started, advertising was a divine gift to the mass media. It embodied the epitome of information superhighway during the time when it was starting as it allowed consumers to get information about products and services at the comfort of their homes, while reading the newspaper for instance, or perhaps while watching the television or listening to the radio. Advertisers, however, were not content on how they can reach consumers and thus initiated ways in ensuring that every centavo they spend in advertising will pay off and entice consumers to buy. Competition also grew as time passed by and today there are too many options for consumers to choose from. This put pressure in the advertisers. The need to sell pushed them to find ways to sell. Oftentimes, the advertising is the best medium to do so given the wide reach and reception that it has. This all led to the harmful effects that many scholars and researchers claim that advertising has. The harms of advertising can be found in its effects in the media, economy, in children and families, and human behavior in general. For one, the media has become advertiser-driven. While before the media’s thrust is to entertain and inform its audiences, it has now become a repository of information of advertisers, their products, and their services. Many shows, in fact, have now been created for the benefit of advertisers and to increase their selling points. There are television programs as well that are created entirely to market a single product, which creates monopoly against products who do not have the capacity such as finances to produce such advertising shows. Economically, this subtle monopoly has lead many small businesses to close down and further empower the primacy of the larger competitors. (Harms and Kellner, n. d. ) These harmful effects are further ratified by the intrusion and repetitiveness of advertisements. From the time one wakes up, eats, rides to work or school, and goes back home to sleep, he is bombarded with advertiser information. Even going to the public restroom is not an exception ever since loo ads became a global trend. (Harms and Kellner, n. d. ) Even the telephone has become an avenue for advertisers. Not only one among many have been caught by telemarketers during dinner, or even during Sunday lunch. The good thing about this is that employment increased, despite the turnover, in telemarketing. The bad thing is that this type of advertising is intrusive and unethical. Even private email addresses are testimonies to the intrusion that advertisers will waive for the sake of trying to sell. Children are also among the most affected by the harms of advertising. According to Dittman (2004), an average child is exposed to 40,000 advertising materials annually. This figure includes all television commercials alone. There are other advertisements aired over the radio, in printed materials, and in fact wherever one looks. Even the schools have welcomed advertisers in campuses, though many institutions stay watchful on the advertisers and advertisements that they allow. Furthermore, studies show that just one exposure to an advertisement, especially in children, can make a register in the brain and even entice buying. This can influence children and adults as well to shop impulsively which has greatly affected consumerism and private lives across the globe. For many instances, children will also nag their parents into buying them things that they saw in advertisements, or for money to buy these things. Even habits can be altered. Studies show that a child’s eating behavior can change drastically when exposed to junk food ads. Exposure to junk food ads alongside healthy food ads is not a solution as well, for children will remember junk food ads more. (Dittman, 2004) In an effort to combat these effects, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Psychological Association, and Kaiser Family Foundation has lead many organizations who are after stricter regulations in advertising. The proponents enjoin groups with the similar vision and mission to create and propose ways to protect the society, highlighting on children, against the harmful effects of advertising. Stricter laws, proper monitoring, regulating bodies, and proper education are among the things viewed to solve the dilemma. (Dittman, 2004) Adult supervision is another thing to appeal for. Today, with kids having private access to the internet, television, radio, and reading materials in their bedrooms or schools, away from the eyes of their parents, they are put into a situation where they are not guided. In such cases, they receive information as facts and even if there is a chance for them to weigh between right and wrong, between positive and negative, there is more probability that the influence that is imprinted on them will affect them. If the advertisement is negative, then the effect will equally be negative. (Dittman, 2004) Yet not all advertisements are intrusive and harmful. (Harms and Keller, n. d. ) There are advertisements that show good behavior and influence people towards the positive. If at all always harmful, many advertisers downplay the bad knowing that audiences will not buy products which have negative impressions on them. (Harmful effects of advertising can be indirect, delayed, and cumulative, n. d. ) This care that advertisers take helps them increase their sales more profoundly. However, it is still a fact that advertising affects the human behavior in general and radiates these effects to their families and to the society ultimately. Advertising is a big leap for the mass media, and it is wrong to eliminate advertising at this point, even if it is torn between the good and the bad. The right thing to do would be to subdue these advertisements and keep the information positive and varied. A good look at psychology, economics, and communication industries will also help. In the end, good advertisers win the game. References Dittman M. 2004. Protecting children from advertising http://www. apa. org/monitor/jun04/protecting. html Harmful effects of advertising can be indirect, delayed, and cumulative. n. d. http://www. uta. edu/huma/illuminations/kell6. htm Harms, J. and Kellner, D. n. d. Toward a critical theory of advertising. http://webserve. govst. edu/pa/Advertising/ABCs/harmful. htm.