Korean War Essay

I. Introduction A. Stalin died in March of 1953. 1. Korean War also ended. B. Eisenhower began a new military policy called the New Look. 1. The key was American ability to build and deliver nuclear weapons. 2. Would allow the U. S. to destroy the S. U. C. Khrushchev 1. Sputnik. a. Sent the U. S. into a deep emotional depression despite the U. S. New Look policy. D. Thesis. 1. After the Suez crisis, Eisenhower and Khrushchev could never completely trust each other again; their relations from then on became based on brinkmanship and their ability to avoid war. II. Dien Bien Phu and South Vietnam. A. Dien Bien Phu (1954) 1. Isolated garrison north of Hanoi. a. French put their best troops there and dared the Viet Minh to come after them. b. By April the French were losing. i. The fall of the garrison would mean the end of French rule in Vietnam. ii. Dulles and Eisenhower saw a victory for Communist aggression and a failure of containment. B. The Splitting of South Vietnam III. Dulles Plan (January 1954) A. Massive retaliation 1. Used as the chief instrument of containment. a. Never used for liberation. b. Used much less after the Soviets were also able to threaten the U.S. with destruction. 2. Three instances of the use brinkmanship. a. Korea (February 1953). b. Vietnam (April 1953). c. Formosa Straits (January 1955). IV. Quemoy and Matsu (January 1955) A. Eisenhower 1. Determined to hole Quemoy and Matsu. a. Believed they were integral to the defense of Formosa. i. If they fell, Formosa would fall, jeopardizing the anti-Communist barrier and putting several countries in the West Pacific under Communist influence. 2. Asked Congress for a blank check because he was afraid he wouldn’t have time to react if the Chinese attacked Quemoy and Matsu. 3. Major war scare. a. Eisenhower seriously considered dropping nuclear weapons on the China mainland. i. Chinese pressure on the islands lessened and the crisis receded. ii. Brinkmanship succeeded. V. Kremlin VI. Stability of Eisenhower’s Government A. Eisenhower 1. Improved Russian-American relations. a. Avoided war and kept the arms race at a low level. 2. Strong position. a. American GNP went up without inflation. b. NATO was intact. c. Western European economy continued to boom. d. American military bases in the Pacific were safe. e. U. S. was military superior to the S. U. VII. Khrushchev’s Secret Speech (February 1956) A. Secret speech 1. Shocked the Party Congress by denouncing Stalin’s crimes. a. Indicated that Stalinist restrictions would be loosened. 2. Russians dissolved Cominform (April 1956). 3. CIA got a copy of the speech and distributed it around the world. a. Khrushchev was forced to disband the old Stalinist Politburo in Warsaw and let Wladyslaw Gomulka, an independent Communist, take power. VIII. Suez Canal Crisis (1956) A. Suez Canal 1. U. S. withdraws support from the Aswan Dam on July 19, 1956 because of Nassar’s trading relationship with theS. U. (Soviets give Nassar guns). a. Nassar seizes the Suez Canal in response. i. British and French furious because they are dependent on the canal for oil. 2. British and French begin plans of invasion of Egypt without telling the U. S. a. Issue an ultimatum, arranged in advance with Israel. i. Warn combatants to stay away from the Suez Canal. ii. Nassar ignores the ultimatum, so Europeans begin bombing Egyptian military targets. 3. U. S. introduces a resolution in the U. N. General Assembly. a. Urge a truce and impose an oil embargo on Britain and France. b. British tried to seize the canal, but the U. S. forces them to return it to Egypt. IX. Budapest Crisis (October 1956) A. Budapest 1. Khrushchev gives power of the stalinist puppet dictators to Imre Nagy. a. The Russians also withdrew their tanks from around Budapest. 2. Nagy withdrew Hungary from the Warsaw Pact. a. Soviets attacked the Hungarians, killing thousands. b. The U. S. never considered helping the Hungarians. i. U. S. armed forces were not capable of driving the Red Army out of Hungary, except through a nuclear holocaust. ii. Hungarians left to fend for themselves against the Russians. X. Eisenhower Doctrine (July 15, 1958) A. Eisenhower Doctrine 1. Gave Eisenhower the authority to use U. S. armed forces in the Middle East if he deemed the necessity of assisting against armed aggression from any country controlled by international communism. a. Sent the Marines into Lebanon to support President Chamoun. i. Intervention illustrated Eisenhower’s methods. ii. Unilateral action that risked war in support of a less democratic government threatened by pro-Nassar Arabs. iii. U. S. troops limited to taking the airfield and the capital only. XI. Sputnik (October 4, 1957) A. Sputnik 1. S. U. successfully launched the worldi â„ ¢s first man- made satellite. a. Americans angry, ashamed, and afraid. 2. The Gaither Report. a. The published findings and recommendations of the Ford Foundation. i. Presented a dark picture of the future of American security. 4. Sputnik had the effect of establishing ground rules for the Cold War. a. Soviets would not challenge the West’s vital interests. b. Eisenhower indicated that he didn’t want an arms race and was eager for datente. XII. Second Berlin Crisis (1956) A. Second Berlin crisis 1. West Berlin an economic miracle. a. Had become the greatest manufacturing city in Germany. b. Its GNP exceeded that of more than half the members of the U. N. 2. Khrushchev moved against West Berlin in late 1956. a. Feared the growing rearmament of West Germany. i. Adenauer, the West German leader, was increasing the pace of rearmament. 3. Free-city proposal. a. Turn West Berlin into a free city and would remove the troops from all alien countries. b. Eisenhower rejected proposal. i. Feared the Russians would frighten the U. S. into an arms race that would bankrupt the country. ii. Khrushchev soon began to back down.

The Hour of the Star

â€Å"A sense of loss† and â€Å"The right to protest† A Lacanian reading of the film The Hour of the Star1 When Clarice Lispector wrote this ‘story with a beginning, a middle and a grand finale followed by silence and falling rain. ’ (HE, pp. 13) she hoped that it could ‘become my [her] own coagulation one day’ (HE, pp. 12). In fact, ‘her hour’ was near for she would soon die of cancer. The book emerged as an experimental novel gradually dialoguing with and producing illusions of itself, like images in mirrors, paradoxically portraying the invisible.Both her book and Susana Amaral's cinematic adaptation seem extremely conscious of Lacan’s concept of subjectivity and adherent to his psychoanalytic theory that reinterprets Freud in structuralist terms, adapting the linguistic model to the data of psychoanalysis. What lies beneath the choice to attempt a Lacanian reading of The Hour of the Star is not the film's patent opennes s to Lacan's ideas on desire, lack and the language of the unconscious.Despite the theoretical suggestiveness of much of the analysis that is to follow, the aim of this essay is to analyse The Hour of the Star using the methodology developed by Lacan whilst criticising its very mechanisms, stressing the importance of issues such as ethnicity, marginality, and poverty, social, cultural and political alienation, left behind by his account of the development of the human subject. A fairly mainstream cinematic version replaces the avant-garde, subversive structure of the book.In the film things fall into place more handily in the name of coherence, and social issues (the chronic plight of a certain type of North-Eastern Brazilians who undertakes a journey to the great cities of the South in search of a better life) replace the major metaphysical meditations found in the book. In The Hour of the Star everything is subjected to a multiplicity of reductions, exaggerated to the minimum, a c aricature in reverse that works in favour of a growing invisibility of things.Physical invisibility, abortion and repressed sexuality are highlighted in the film, depicting the drama of Macabea, a humble orphan girl from the backwoods of Alagoas, North Eastern Brazil, who was brought up by a forbidding aunt before making her way to the slums of Rio de Janeiro. In this city, she shares the same bed sitter with three girls and works as a typist. Centred on her (in)existence, the film explores Macabea’s marginality by placing her among the marginalities of the characters that populate the world of Rio de Janeiro.There is a strong focus on the relationships between the characters: Seu Raimundo and Seu Pereira (her bosses), Gloria (her colleague from work), Olimpico de Jesus Moreira Chaves (her ‘boyfriend’), and Madame Carlota (the fortune 1 Throughout the essay, A Hora da Estrela, (HE) will refer to Clarice Lispector’s novel (Portuguese version), while the tit le: The Hour of the Star (HS) will refer to the film, a Brazilian cinematic adaptation of Clarice Lispector’s book (The Hour of the Star, Dir.Susana Amaral, Raiz Producoes Cinematograficas, 1985). The dialogues in this work were translated and transcribed from the film, while the book excerpts were taken from the English translation of the novel: The Hour of the Star, trans. Giovanni Pontiero (Manchester: Carcanet, 1992). 1 teller). Macabea has poverty, inexperience, ingenuity, ill-health and anonymity written all over her. All she can afford to eat and drink are hotdogs and Coca-cola.Her only (unachievable) dream is to become a film star. Without any goals in life, her sole interest is listening to Radio Relogio (Radio Clock) that broadcasts the seconds, minutes and hours of the day along with random information about life. Olimpico, who she meets in the park one day, starts going out with her but ends up in Gloria’a arms, after the latter’s visit to the fortun e teller. When Macabea decides to visit the fortune teller herself, her life seems about to change completely.The promise of abundance is followed by utter disappointment when Macabea, wearing her new Cinderella-blue dress, is run over by a car and dies alone, fantasising that she is running into the arms of the promised rich lover Hans, her long curly hair in the wind. Any Lacanian approach to this Cinderella-in-reverse story would proceed with reference to the unconscious, interpreting the text as a metaphor of the unconscious and the subject as a linguistic construct. Lacan is unequivocally clear when he states that: (†¦) the unconscious is structured in the most radical way like a language, hat a material operates in it according to certain laws, which are the same laws as those discovered in the study of actual languages (†¦)2 To the French psychoanalyst, the unconscious is constituted by a signifying chain, whereby the negative relations between the signifiers3 are n ever anchored in meaning: one signifier leads to another but never to the things it supposedly represents. Macabea launches the play of signifiers in the film: the assemblages of signifiers clustered around her convey the elusiveness of the signified and the centrality of the unconscious.Her problem with the meaning of words stands for Lacan’s model which gives primacy to the signifier and not the signified. The audience feels somehow â€Å"oppressed† by the many unanswered questions and the violence of the oblique illusions of truth inside definitions. What follows is a dialogue between Macabea and Olimpico during one of their walks together: Macabea On Radio Clock they were talking about alligators†¦ and something about ‘camouflage’†¦ What does ‘camouflage’ mean? Olimpico That’s not a nice word for a virgin to be using.The brothels are full of women who asked far too many questions. Macabea Olimpico Where is the brothel? Ità ¢â‚¬â„¢s an evil place where only men go. 2 Jacques Lacan, Ecrits: A Selection, pp. 234 2 ‘Just because people ask you for something doesn’t mean that’s what they really want you to give them’4, Lacan would argue, commenting on this dialogue. What Macabea desires from Olimpico is not exactly a word’s signification but something else implied in that same dialogue. She desires the meaning, yet lacks the meaning and that same lack structures her desire.Macabea asks others for definitions, but others are as ignorant as she is. The film’s plays on ambiguity, misunderstandings and misjudgments add to Lacan’s play of signifiers: Olimpico Macabea Olimpico Macabea Olimpico Macabea Olimpico Macabea Olimpico Macabea Olimpico Macabea Olimpico Macabea Olimpico Macabea Olimpico Macabea Well†¦ Well what? I just said well. But well what? Let’s change the subject. You don’t understand. Understand what? Oh my God, Macabea. Let’ s talk about something else. What do you want to talk about? Why don’t you talk about you?Me? What’s the problem? People talk about themselves. Yes, but I am not like other people. I don’t think I am many people. If you are not people, then what are you? It’s just that I’m not used to it. What? Not used to what? I can’t explain. Am I really myself? Look, I’m off. You’ve no wits. How do I get wits? Insofar as the Lacanian analyst doesn’t take himself/herself as the representative of knowledge but sees the analysand’s unconscious as the ultimate authority, all these questions about the meaning of words are also metaphors of the unconscious.Macabea is under the illusion that meaning can be fixed and the illusion of stability destabilizes her. According to Lacan’s view of interpretation, meaning is imaginary and irrelevant: It is the chain of the signifier that the meaning insists without any of its elements ma king up the signification. 5 In one of the last scenes, Macabea is driven to the fortune teller by her colleague friend, Gloria, in an effort to fix her life. Madame Carlota divines everything about Macabea’s past, acknowledges 3 Lacan followed the ideas laid out by the linguist Saussure, who viewed the ign as the combination of a signifier (sound image) and a signified (concept). Lacan focuses on relations between signifiers alone. 4 J. Lacan, Ecrits: A Selection, Seminar XIII 3 the signs of the future but fails to interpret them. Macabea’s fate is consummated despite the fortune teller’s misinterpretations because, Lacanians might argue, understanding is irrelevant to the process. But, in this case, understanding becomes very relevant indeed for the Lacanian critics who argue that death represents the destiny of those who get hold of the Phallus.By misunderstanding the signs, Madame Carlota tells Macabea her supposedly brilliant future. As if ‘listening to a fanfare of trumpets coming from heaven’ (HE, pp. 76), Macabea learns that she is going to be very rich, meet a wealthy handsome foreigner named Hans, with whom she will marry, and become a renown famous star. Macabea believes every single word she is told, hence truly acknowledging that all her fantasies will come true that very day. Macabea’s desire to have the Phallus is now a reality. Once desire is extinguished, there are no more reasons to keep on living.This scene shows how Lacan’s view on interpretation as an easy reductionist task leading to imaginary understanding can rebound on him. The scene previously referred to is rooted in another depicting the beginning of the relationship between Macabea and Olimpico, which shows the essentialist views latent in Dr. Lacan’s theory of sexuation. Lacan’s concept of ‘object (a)’ is considered to be his most significant contribution to psychoanalysis. 6 ‘Object (a)’ is th at which is desired but always out of reach, a lost object signifying an imaginary moment in time.According to his theory, people delve into relationships because they are driven by the desire to overcome Lack (consequence of castration). Because Lack is experienced in different ways by men and women, both sexes have different ways of overcoming their Lack: they either place themselves in relation to the Phallus (feminine structures) or the ‘object (a)’ (masculine structures). Lacan argues that in the sexual relationship7 the sexes are defined separately because they are organized differently with respect to language/to the symbolic:8 masculine structure limits men to Phallic ‘jouissance’ while feminine structure limits omen to ‘object (a)’ ‘jouissance’ and also allows them to experience another kind of ‘jouissance’, which Lacan calls the Other ‘jouissance’9. By jouissance Lacan implies what ‘is forb idden to him who J. Lacan, Ecrits: A Selection, Instance de la letter dans l’inconscient ou la raison depuis Freud’ In the preface to Ecrits, Lacan mentions ‘object (a)’: ‘We call upon this object as being at once the cause of desire in which the subject is eclipsed and as something supporting the subject between truth and knowledge. 7 It must be kept in mind that Lacan’s work on sexual difference crosses over the borderlines of biological distinction. He defines femininity and masculinity on the basis of psychoanalytic terms. 8 Lacan explains the alternative versions of castration: 6 5 (†¦) suggerer un derangement non pas contingent, mais essentie de la sexualite humaine (†¦) sur l’irreductibilite a toute analyse finie (endliche), des sequelles qui resultant du complexe de castration dans l’inconscient masculine, du penisneid dans l’inconscient de la femme. In ‘La signification du phallus’, Ecrits, pp. 85 9 When Lacan discusses the notion of another kind of â€Å"jouissance† (Other ‘jouissance’), he explains that women (human beings structured by the feminine) are the only ones that have access to it, while men are limited to Phallic ‘jouissance’. According to Bruce Fink, this concept roughly implies that the phallic function has its limits and that the signifier isn’t everything. ’ B. Fink, The Lacanian Subject: Between Language and Jouissance, pp. 107) 4 speaks (†¦)’10, that is, that completion of being which is forever inaccessible to the split subject.To paraphrase Fink, insofar as a woman forms a relationship with a man, she is likely to be reduced to an object – ‘object (a)’, reduced to no more than a collection of male fantasy objects, an image that contains and yet disguises ‘object (a)’. He will isolate one of her features and desire that single feature (her hair, her legs, her voice, etc. ), instead of the woman as a whole. In a different way, the woman may require a man to embody the Phallus for her, but her partner will never truly be the man as much as the Phallus.Therefore, ‘il n’y a pas de rapport sexuel’ (Lacan’s famous remark) because the dissymmetry of partners is utter and complete. By lack of symmetry Lacan means what she/he sees herself/himself in relation to [either the Phallus or ‘object (a)’]. Going back to the film, the masculine and feminine realms seem to be clearly limited in terms of a traditional heterosexual system (the odd-one-out being the character of the fortune teller in whom we perceive traces of homosexuality). When Olimpico first meets Macabea in the park, she is holding a red flower in her hands.Olimpico draws nearer, asks her name and invites her for a walk. At a certain point he mentions her red flower, gently asks for her permission to pull out its leaves, and finally returns it to Macabea. Under Lacan’s eyes, insofar as she holds the flower, Macabea sees herself in terms of the Phallus, the flower being its metaphor, what she desires to hold in her hands. Olimpico is, in her eyes, the biologically defined man incarnating the Phallus (her true partner being the Phallus and not the man).As Lacan’s theory sets out to show, Olimpico belongs to those characterized by masculine structure. He will search within this woman’s features, a particular one and reduce her to ‘object (a)’ in his fantasy, trying to overcome the primordial Lack. However, it seems terribly hard to invest a precious object that arouses his desire in this particular woman: ugly, dirty and looking rather ill, there is nothing in her left to be reduced to a male fantasy object. Hence the customized flower: Olimpico invests what arouses his desire11 in the flower and not the girl.If we pursue Lacan’s theory a step further in terms of masculine/signifier and feminine/’signifiance’12, we will conclude that his work on sexuation rests on the belief that subjectification takes place at different levels in different sexuated beings: while the signifier refuses the task of signification, the ‘signifiant’ plays the material, non-signifying face of the signifier, the part that has effects without signifying: ‘jouissance’ effects. 13 This is displayed as the J. Lacan, Ecrits: A Selection, pp. 319 A similar flower will appear again in the film: Macabea has put it in a glass n her desk at work. Gloria, her colleague from the office, is getting ready for a first date with a man she never met before. She decides to wear the red flower in her bodice so that he can recognise her. Her appropriation of the flower symbolises her future appropriation of Olimpico’s fantasy (she will steal Macabea’s boyfriend, following the fortune teller’s advice) and her reduction to a male fantasy object. At t he same time, the man she is about to go out with is reduced to his sexy voice. 12 Lacan’s concept of ‘letre de la signifiance’, found in Seminar XX, is explained by B.Fink in these terms: ‘I have proposed to translate it as  «signifierness », that is, the fact of being a signifier (†¦) the signifying nature of signifiers. When Lacan uses this term, it is to emphasise the nonsensical nature of the signifier, the very existence of signifiers apart from and separated from any possible meaning or signification they might have. ’ B. Fink, The Lacanian Subject: Between Language and Jouissance, pp. 118-9 13 B. Fink, The Lacanian Subject: Between Language and Jouissance, pp. 119 11 10 5 heoretical reason implying that the signifier of desire can be identified with only one sex at a time, meaning that Woman can never be defined as long as Man is defined. As Fink puts it, (†¦) the masculine path might then be qualified as that of desire (becomin g one’s own cause of desire) while the feminine path would be that of love. 14 Watching this scene in isolation, one has the impression that love is for Macabea as desire is for Olimpico. This is not entirely the case, for in this scene and in the film in general, a woman (Macabea) is defined as long as a man (Olimpico) is defined.In a relationship where the partners are not identical (different feminine/masculine structures) both of them are ruled by desire. On the one hand, Olimpico desires all the attributes that Macabea sadly lacks, so he turns to Gloria, Macabea’s ideal imago (a version of what the latter wants to be, a version of herself that she can love). On the other hand, Macabea is not ruled by love. What she experiences with Olimpico is nothing compared to what she feels when Madame Carlota tells her about Hans: she feels inebriated, experiencing for the first time what other people referred to as passion.She falls passionately in love with Hans because the fortune teller had told her that he would care for her. Both Macabea and Olimpico are ruled by the desire to be loved and not by love. And if in this heterosexual relationship (which for Lacan is the norm) the dissymmetry is not entirely complete, what can we say of the homosexuality referred to by the fortune teller, who finds Macabea much too delicate to cope with the brutality of men and tells her, from experience, that love between two women is more affectionate?In fact, Lacan never theorized homosexuality very seriously, although his failure to account for it may be explained by the fact that the Symbolic is structured in favour of heterosexuality. In his theory of the Symbolic, the baby undergoes the mirror stage between 6 and 18 months old. By this time, the baby sees its own image in the mirror and enters the symbolic stage (realm of the imaginary: imaginary identification with the image in the mirror). As Lacan sets out to explain,This event can take place (†¦) from t he age of six months, and its repetition has often made me reflect upon the startling spectacle of the infant in front of the mirror. Unable as yet to walk (†¦) he nevertheless overcomes the obstructions of his support and (†¦) brings back an instantaneous aspect of the image. For me, this activity retains the meaning I have given it up to the age of eighteen months. 15 Mirrors play an important role in Macabea’s life. Looking at her own reflection, she tries to find out who she is.After having used Gloria’s trick (making up an excuse to skip work), Macabea decides 14 15 Bruce Fink, The Lacanian Subject: Between Language and Jouissance, pp. 115 Jacques Lacan, Ecrits, A Selection, Chapter I: ‘The mirror stage as formative of the function of the eye as revealed in psychoanalytic experience. ’, pp. 1, 2 6 to spend her day off in her room, listening to Radio Clock, dancing and looking at herself in the mirror. The camera shows her reflection and what we see is a split image in the mirror: she stands between what she is, what she wants to be and what others want her to be. 6 When she tells the mirror: â€Å"I’m a typist, a virgin and I like Coca-cola† she complements her identity split with her mirage identity: Macabea is staging her identity by identifying with other people’s perceptions of herself. She is not eighteen months old but an eighteen-year-old in the middle of Lacan’s mirror stage, looking for models (which are the models in shop windows: the parental Other is absent), learning new words (at work as a typist, at home listening to the radio), looking at herself in mirrors. It is as if the Symbolic were staging ‘reality’ too late in the character’s life.During a walk at the Zoo, Olimpico accuses Macabea of being a liar: Macabea It is true. May God strike me dead if I’m not telling the truth. May my mother and my father drop dead right now. Olimpico Macabea You said your parents were dead. I forgot†¦ As Lacan would put it, we are watching how the Symbolic can bar the real, overwriting and transforming it completely, the reason for this being that the Symbolic is but a pale disguised reflection of the Real; the reason for this not being a basic assumption about the condition of being a child without living parents, that is, about the alienation caused by orphanage.This does not mean that Lacan did not reflect on the concept of alienation (check Fink, footnote 28, chapter 7, seminar XVI). In his opinion, that is what places the subject within the Symbolic. In alienation, the speaking being is forced to give up something as she/he comes into language. Lacan sees it as an attempt to make sense by trying to act coherently with the image one has about oneself. These attempts alienate the person because meaning is always ambiguous, polyvalent, betraying something one wanted to remain hidden or something one wanted to express. Lacan does not cond emn or avoid alienation in his analysis.At a certain point, in Seminar XVI, he establishes a comparison between ‘surplus value’ (Marxist concept: the ‘jouissance’ of property or money that is the fruit of the employees’ labour, the excess product) and ‘surplus  «jouissance »Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ (what we seek in every relationship/activity but never achieve). While capitalism creates a loss aiming at ‘surplus value’ (the loss of the worker), our advent as speaking beings also creates a loss (the loss of ‘jouissance’ through castration). In Lacan’s economy of ‘jouissance’, both losses are at the centre of the development of civilisation, culture and market forces.At a certain moment in the film, we 16 In this respect, Lacan explains that ‘the only homogeneus function of consciousness is the imaginary capture of the ego by its mirror reflection and the function of misrecognition which remains attached to it. ’ In Ecrits, A Selection (1966) 7 watch Macabea handing over a certain ‘jouissance’ to the Other: she is told by her boss she has to work late. The consequence is that Gloria will meet Olimpico in the park, instead of Macabea. Following Lacan’s theoretical discourse, the scene depicts Macabea being forced to give up ‘something’ as she comes into language (as she finishes typing the documents).That ‘something’ is her love object. The scene can be read as a reference to the primordial loss – castration – by meditating on the importance of the sacrifice of ‘jouissance’ as it creates a lack17 and consequently gears life (the Symbolic/the plot) onwards: Gloria steals her colleague’s boyfriend and eventually gets a husband, following the fortune teller’s instructions; Macabea loses her boyfriend and ends up at the hands of the fortune teller who guides her towards her death.This analysis foc uses on the ‘surplus  «jouissance »Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ and not on the Marxist concept of ‘surplus value’, therefore neglecting important class struggle/capitalist issues. Adopting a Lacanian frame in the analysis of alienation in The Hour of the Star involves losing what a Marxist concept of alienation might otherwise bring into light: the alienating effect society operates on Macabea as an exploited underpaid employee who finds herself working (sometimes after hours) for the employer’s enjoyment.The film, on the contrary, is quite clear in its portrait of an alienated subject working for less than the minimum wage in a decadent, poor-lit warehouse. A dialogue between Seu Raimundo and Seu Pereira suggests the capitalists’ attitude towards the proletarian Macabea: Raimundo Pereira Raimundo (†¦) Pereira: Raimundo Besides, she is really ugly. Like a shrivelled pomegranate. Where did you get her? Ok, she’s a bit clumsy. But a brilliant typist would want more money. It’s the new typist, Macabea. Maca what? -beia. Maca-bea. No one else was willing to do the job for less than the minimum wage.Adding to the notion of the film as a metaphor of the unconscious are: mirrors and their fragmented reflections, Radio Clock and its fragmented, dispersed bits of information and the gaze of the camera as the audience accedes to Macabea’s world through furtive gazings behind windows, doors, in the street. This gaze could be interpreted as belonging to Macabea’s wicked aunt who has died but still haunts her conscience. Macabea’s paradoxical fantasy, her dream to become a film star, is also hooked up to the circuit of the unconscious as the end term of her desire.Lacan explains that the unconscious, ruled as a language, is overpopulated with other people’s desires that flow into us via discourse. 18 So, our very fantasies can be foreign to us, they can be alienating. Macabea’s fantasy to become a film star could â€Å"Without lack, the subject can never come into being, and the whole efflorescence of the dialectic of desire is squashed. † In Bruce Fink, The Lacanian Subject: Between Language and Jouissance, pp. 103 17 8 be read as a way of answering other people’s desire: that she takes care of herself, eats better, dresses better, and works better.Interpreting Macabea’s dream as a response to her own desire (she wants to be loved; film stars are loved; therefore, she wants to be a film star) implies walking away from Lacanian theory. The subject is here very much implicated in the process. Others don’t seem to have had a hand in it. Olimpico laughs and humiliates her when she tells him about her dream and doesn’t encourage her to pursue it: Olimpico What makes you think that you’ve got the face or the body to become a film star? (†¦) Take a good look at yourself in the mirror.Lacan’s approach to the unconscious considerably r educes the sources from which one can carve out knowledge in relation to this film. Macabea’s ethnicity calls forth the analyst’s knowledge of Brazil’s North-Eastern structural roots of poverty (drought plagued agriculture, slums, human rights abuse in terms of health and education, the plight of street children, women’s issues in terms of class, race and land tenure). An informed reading of The Hour of the Star raises the question of marginality within the frameworks of location, gender, race, individual/social conscience, language and testimony.In the context of this film, the concept of marginality has to be addressed in the plural. There are different definitions of margin at stake, as well as different layers of marginal behaviours, each of them empowering the social/individual transgressions suggested by Macabea’s lack of attitude towards existence. The characters in this story are aware of their condition as outsiders. They are seen through their relation to Macabea: her apathy and emptiness are exquisitely painful in that they remind others of the collective pain felt in a dehumanised world.In the pyramid of the excluded, Macabea is victimised as a female and as a North easterner in search of her inner self. Her voluntary attempt, although grotesque and inarticulate, to question and witness her blunt existence stands as the last stance of her marginality. It is the hour of the tragic question: ‘Who am I? ’, echoing the major preoccupation of every mortal. Unlike the other characters, she fails in every sphere of her life but not in asking this question.She is aware of her inner otherness, although unable to verbalise or make sense of it. She witnesses it, tries to speak it, but never tells it, because what needs to be told is pure silence narrated from within. The title of the present study resonates with the limits of a psychoanalytic reading of The Hour of the Star. â€Å"A sense of Loss† and â⠂¬Å"The right to protest† are two of the fourteen titles19 advanced by 18 Lacan suggests that ‘it is in the reduplication of the subject of speech that the unconscious finds the means to articulate itself. ’, J.Lacan, Ecrits: A Selection, ‘A la memoire d’Ernest Jones: sur la theorie du symbolisme’ 19 List of titles found at the beginning of HE: The Blame is Mine or The Hour of the Star or Let Her Fend for Herself or The Right to Protest or . As for the Future or Singing the Blues or She Doesn’t Know How to Protest or A Sense of Loss 9 Clarice Lispector in her book A Hora da Estrela. They were chosen by me for two reasons. The first implies that analysing the film by giving the book behind it the cold shoulder would weaken the analysis. Another is the belief that choosing only one title would dramatically reduce the scope of this work of art.Macabea cannot escape looking at mirrors and gazing at a sense of loss that dazzles her in her opa que leading-nowhere-abstractions. But she is herself a mirror reflecting the social inequities of the Brazilian society in she lived. Taking a step further, we could add yet another title: â€Å"I can do nothing†, number eleven in Lispector’s title list. This one would eclipse the Other’s discourse, unconscious and unintentional, and give way to the informed discourse of a conscious audience viewing writing as a representative mirror of reality.Having said all this, one can only afford ‘A discreet exit by the back door’20 once a final, irrevocable question is posed. Is it still possible, having pointed out the missing dimensions of analysis and the resistances to a Lacanian approach of The Hour of the Star, to make sense of Lacan’s theoretical framework? On the one hand, answering with a ‘no’ would seem fatally solipsistic in what the existing quantities of written work on psychoanalysis are concerned, as Lacan’s work lies at the epicentre of contemporary discourses about otherness, subjectivity, sexual difference, to name just a few topics.Answering with a ‘yes’, on the other hand, would plainly simplify subject matters that are, as this work intends to show, very complex. Perhaps the question, in the fashion of all interesting questions, offers no answer insofar as a balanced account of the possibilities, limitations, meanings and implications of Lacan’s theory is not thoroughly considered. or Whistling in the Dark Wind or I Can Do Nothing or A Record of Preceding Events or A Tearful Tale or A Discreet Exit by the Back Door. 20 Final title in Clarice Lispector’s list of titles. 10 Primary Bibliography Lacan, J. Ecrits (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1966) _______, Ecrits: A Selection, trans. Alan Sheridan (London: Routledge, 1977) _______, The Seminar of Jacques Lacan. Book II. The Ego in Freud’s Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis, trans. Sylvana Tomaselli (N ew York/London: Norton & Co. , 1991) _______, The Ethics of Psychoanalysis: The Seminar of Jacques Lacan Book VII, trans. Denis Porter (London/New York: Norton & Co. , 1992) Lispector, C. , A Hora da Estrela, (Rio de Janeiro: Jose Olympio, 1977) __________, The Hour of the Star, trans. Giovanni Pontiero (Manchester: Carcanet, 1992) Freud, S. New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, ed. /trans. J. Strachey (London: Penguin Books, 1991 The Hour of the Star, Dir. Susana Amaral, Raiz Producoes Cinematograficas, 1985 Secondary bibliography Barry, P. , Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002) Benvenuto B. & Kennedy, R. , The Works of Jacques Lacan: An Introduction (London: Free Association Books, 1986) Cixous, H. , ‘The Hour of The Star: How Does One Desire Wealth or Poverty? ’, Reading With Clarice Lispector, ed. and trans.Verena Andermatt Conley (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1990), 1 43-163 Daidone, L. C. & Clifford, J. , â€Å"Clarisse Lispector: Anticipating the Postmodern†, Multicultural Literatures through Feminist/Poststructuralist Lenses, ed. Barbara Frey Waxman (Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1993), 190-201 Fink, B. , The Lacanian Subject: Between Language and Jouisssance (Princeton N. J. : Princeton University Press, 1995) Fitz, E. , ‘Point of View in Clarice Lispector’s A Hora Da Estrela’, Luso-Brazilian Review, 19. 2 (1982), 195-208 Lapsley, R. Westlake, M. , Film Theory: An Introduction (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1988) _________, ‘From Cassablanca to Pretty Woman: The politics of Romance’, Screen, 33. 1 (1992), 27-49 Lemaire, A. , Jacques Lacan, trans. D. Macey (London, Henley & Boston: Routledge, 1977) Klobucka, A. , ‘Helene Cixous and the Hour of Clarice Lispector, SubStance, 73 (1994), 41-62 Mitchell, J. & Rose, J. (eds), Feminine Sexuality: Jacques Lacan and the Ecole freu dienne (Houndsmill: Macmillan, 1992) Mitchell, J. , Psychoanalysis and Feminism (London: Penguin, 1990) Mulvey, L. ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’, The Sexual Subject: A Screen Reader in Sexuality (London & New York: Routledge, 1998), 22-34 Nelmes, J. (ed. ), An Introduction to Film Studies, 2nd edn (London: Routledge, 1990) Patai, D. , ‘Aspiring to the Absolute’, Women’s Review of Books, 4 (1987), 30-31 Smith, J. & Kerrigan, W. (eds. ), Interpreting Lacan (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1983) Storey, J. , Cultural Teory and Popular Culture: An Introduction, 3rd edn (Dorchester: Dorset Press, 2001) Whatling, C. , Screen Dreams: Fantasising Lesbians in Film (Manchester & New York: Manchester University Press, 1997) 11

Similarities and Differences Between Jainism and Buddhism

Both Buddhism and Jainism. have many similarities and dissimilarities. As remarked be Monier Williams. â€Å"Buddhism and Jainism were not related to each other as parent or child but rather children of common parent, born at different intervals, though at about the same period of time and marked by distinct characteristics, though possession a strong family of resemblances†. W. W. Hunter writes â€Å"Jainism is as much independent from other sects, specially from Buddhism as can be expected, from any other sect. Not withstanding certain similarities, it differ from Buddhism in its ritual and objects of workship. Similarities : (1) The source of both the religion is vedic religion and both and indebted to Upanishads (2) Both Gautam Buddha and Mahavir belonged to princely families and not to priestly families. (3) Both deny the existence of God. (4) Both denied the authority of the Vedas and the necessity of performing sacrifices and rituals. (5) Both have accepted the theorie s of Karma rebirth and Moksha. (6) Both taught in the language of the common people i. e. Prakrit and not in Sanskrit which was the language of the priests. (7) Both of them were opposed to animal sacrifices. 8) Both of them admitted disciples from all the castes and from both sexes. (9) Ahimsa is the prominent principle of both the religions. (10) Both Buddhism and Jainism put stress on right conduct and right knowledge and not on religious ceremonial and ritual as the way to obtain salvation. (11) Both, the religions came as a sort of reform of Hindu religion. (12) Both the Religions were later on divided into two sects. Buddhism was divided into Mahayana and Hinayana. Jainism was divided into Svetambara and Digambara. (13) Both had their own three gems or ‘Tri Ratna'.Tri Ratna of Jainism were right philosophy right knowledge and right character. The Tri-Ratna of Buddhism were Budhha, Dhamma and Sangha. (14) Both had three main religious texts. Tripitaka, i. e. Vinaypitak, S uttapitaka and Abidhamma pitak were the three religious texts of Buddhism, where as Anga i. e, Anga, Upanga and Mulgrajitha were those of the Jainism. Dis-similarities : (1) Difference regarding conception Moksha : According to Buddhism, a man attains Moksha when he ends all the desires and can attain it while living in the world. But according, to Jainism Moksha is freedom from miseries and can be attained only after death. 2) Means of attainment of Moksha: According to Buddhist Sangha is proper for attainment of Moksha and they hate self-mortifications and severe penances. Jainism believes in fasts and severest penances. (3) Ahimsa : Though both emphasise the principle of Ahimsa, yet Jainism is more strict in this connection. (4) Soul: Buddhists do not believe in the existence of soul whereas Jainism believes the existence of soul in every living being. (5) Regarding Conduct: Buddhism emphasises the eight noble piths whereas Jainism emphasises Tri Ratna. (6) Language of Religious texts :Most of the Jain texts are in Sanskrit and Prakrit whereas Buddhist text are in Pali. (7)Their connection with Hinduism : Jain religion is nearer to Hinduism whereas Buddhism followed the policy of keeping away from Hinduism. (8) Caste system : Jains opposed it but Buddhism opposed and attacked vehemently. (9) Royal support and patronage : Buddhism received the royal support and patronage of kings like Ashoka and Kanishka. But Jainism could never receive strong royal support and Patronage. (10) Propagation : Buddhism spread to foreign countries whereas Jainism did not travel outside the boundaries of India.

Does Economical Crisis Effect Consumer Behavior Dissertation

Does Economical Crisis Effect Consumer Behavior - Dissertation Example This study will greatly benefit different parties for instance; current investors, potential investors, scholars, the government and consumers themselves. The current players in these industries will be able to gain knowledge on how their products are faring in the market and with this they are able to develop strategies on how to improve their position. To scholars, this study will enable them to gain knowledge as well as understanding as to why luxury brands are still being purchased despite the economic crisis. The government will also gain a better understanding of the standards of living and with this develop suitable policies. For the potential investors, they are well-equipped to make decisions concerning venturing into such industries. Lastly, the study will also provide essential data.The ImpactAccording to Smith (2009), as most consumers struggle to fit in the economic crisis, most companies have realized the opportunity for capturing the changing consumers’ profile. This is by offering lower priced products, a strategy for continuity and winning consumers. Sullivane (2008) informs that new products should enter the market at low prices and be promoted through special offers or free samples. Not very long ago, luxury was beyond most people’s reach and it was mostly available to the elite. For example, Louis Vuitton was once renowned for making products solely for European aristocrats. Compare this to the current situation where its logo-ridden products are worn the world-over by teenagers.

French Language and Culture from 1500 to1900 Assignment

French Language and Culture from 1500 to1900 - Assignment Example America was regarded as a land of wonder, romance, gold, and adventure. The new country unveiled the secrets of the barbarous continent, but the Frenchmen pierced the forests, mapped and traced out streams, built their forts, planted their emblems and claimed their own territories (Eacott 2015 pp. 69). The new country offered great opportunities for spiritual welfare. Priests and monks were brought alongside the soldiers to offer spiritual nourishment to the Indians and save their souls. When Henry the Second was on the throne, France desired to get a share of the rich new world of which the Spanish and Portuguese arrogance claimed the monopoly. The desire of France saw her not only send Frenchmen only but also Protestant Frenchmen. The importance of them being Protestants was for the sake of evangelism, as well as disguising their identity for acceptability. The Frenchmen and the Protestant Frenchmen were sent to plant the fleur-de-lis on the New World’s shores. In the name of King, two vessels were prepared for the big journey. The emigration’s body was the Huguenots, mixed with young nobles, poor, idle and restless, with piratical sailors from the Breton and Norman seaports and reckless artisans. They entered the harbor of Rio Janeiro, which was then named Guanabara and built huts for their accommodation (Miller 592). The anticipation for future triumphs was evident in them. According to Dubois (2004 pp. 36), a black and deadly potent cloud was thickening over France in the year 1562. A problem was brewing and was inclined towards religious wars. It was impossible for anyone to pierce the future, not to mention contemplating it. The wide range of hate and fanaticism, brother fighting brother, friend fighting friend, son with father made the future dark. Spain, on the other hand, watched and waited to crush and trample any hope of humanity.  

Microtubules Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Microtubules - Essay Example Microtubules are polymers that have elongated tube-like monomer chains. These chains are helical like. ÃŽ ±-ÃŽ ²tubulin subunits make up the helical tube that has 13 protofilaments that are aligned in a parallel way. The subunits enable the tube-like monomers to link with each other using vertical and lateral bonds. The ÃŽ ±-tubulin domain bind to the ÃŽ ²-tubulin domain forming these bonds. Hence, the mechanical strength of the microtubules is enhanced. The Microtubule Organizing Centre mediates the nucleation of the microtubules. It comprises a ring complex of ÃŽ ³-TURC and ÃŽ ³-tubulin (Atkinson, 2014, 5870). The specific ring complex serve as the template of the 13 subunits of the microtubules. Microtubules grow from the minus to the positive side. The minus side is located at the centrosome. The growth occurs towards the outer region to the cortex. The overall characteristic of the microtubules is the propensity for dynamic instability. Thus, the microtubules can shrink and grow randomly. The characteristic is associated with loss of the â€Å"GTC-cap. The loss is produced as new subunits are added. There is an ATP unit that is located in the ÃŽ ²-tubulin part of the microtubules. The ATP unit goes through hydrolisation as the filament grows (Alieva, 2014, 670). There is a disadvantage to this growth. If the hydrolisation is more rapid than the rate of the addition of monomers, it compromises the microtubule. There is a GDP bound type of the ÃŽ ²-tubulin that has a higher dissociation energy in comparison to the one that is bound by the ATP. It makes it more energetic for the microtubule de-polymerization. Hydrolisation enables the formation of ADP. It raises the likelihood of the microtubules being spoilt. They can be spoilt through reduction in the length and de-polymerization. The speed of spoilage of the microtubules is influenced by factors like proteins that bind along their

Make for me....plz Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Make for me....plz - Essay Example Archilde, who has just returned, is his father's last hope as an heir to the land and fortune he developed over the years. Max Leon is portrayed as the authoritarian father figure in The Surrounded. He is the ever rigid Spaniard who fails completely to communicate with his own sons. Max's problem is that he has never tried to understand his half-Indian sons. He only demands that they obey him and that they should become "Americanized" ranchers. When they fail to become fully acculturated, Max becomes bitter. The family as can be seen is quite dysfunctional. All the relationships, as it were, have collapsed. Max's sons are all estranged from him, and he cannot figure out why. Max's neighbor, rancher Emile Pariseau, has come looking for the son named Louis because he has stolen horses from Pariseau. In disgust with Louis's behavior as well as the unnamed problems with his other sons, Max angrily says that they could all be sent to the penitentiary for all he cares and he damns them all except Archilde. This is the uncaring attitude that the father figure adopts towards his children in the novel. All Max w ants is that at least one of his sons would turn out well and be worthy and able to take over his extensive ranching and farming operations.

Managing Innovation & Entrepreneurship Assignment

Managing Innovation & Entrepreneurship - Assignment Example Even when the innovation is principally a product or service that has its beginnings principally as a technological breakthrough, its eventual usefulness will depend greatly on whether the new discovery or invention could be rendered in a form usable according to how the discoverer or inventor intended it to be used. In Tidd, Bessant and Pavitt (2005) the invention of Thomas Edison’s incandescent light bulb was discussed, but was not put immediately to commercial use. The light bulb needed electricity to work, which was not difficult for Edison to generate (as direct current) for a single or even a set of light bulbs for his own lab or residence. But if every house and street was to be lighted up by his invention, a way must be discovered for electricity to be generated at a single station, then transmitted and supplied to a whole geographical area. Edison’s direct current, however, could not travel long distances, and was very inefficient. It took the discovery and dev elopment of Nikolai Tesla’s alternating current – something Edison resented and even campaigned against – to perform this task, because AC transmission was very efficient, and it travels extremely long distances compared to DC’s few kilometres (McNichol, 2006).. In retrospect, Edison’s light bulb was a technological invention, but one that could not be put to practical commercial use until AC supply was invented. The above case shows how technology cannot stand alone to sustain an innovation, because the innovation has to do with more than just the technology, but the way people’s lives are changed. The innovation must be linked to the market in all its aspects – its technical design, manufacturing, management and commercial activities (Tidd, et al., 2005). Furthermore, a successful innovation is not just filling the consumer’s need, but fulfilling it in a new and differentiated way. A new product or service is not an innovatio n, unless it offers the customers â€Å"something of value that competitors don’t have (MacMillan & McGrath, 1997, p. 133). This does not necessarily rest on the technological merits of the innovation; sometimes, it may be something as simple as the relocation of handles, and lids, or the design of packaging that offers the customer utility; all of these are innovations, though not necessarily advanced technologically. Among our readings is a case study on CEMEX, or Cementos Mexicanos, a Mexican cement giant. Although it is a century old and comes from a developing country, the company has become the third-largest selling cement company in the world by volume, exporting to more than sixty companies, and garnering sales of more than US$ 6 billion (Sull, Ruelas-Gossi, & Escobari, 2004). The company’s secret is that it tries to understand the needs of its market very well, sending employees out to the communities to learn where their product can be improved to meed the c ustomers’ needs, and develop ways their customers can better afford their product. The article goes on to describe how companies in developing economies are able to innovate despite: (1) lack of a solid technology base; (2) serving a country with low disposable income; and (3) operating on a shoestring budget (Sull, Ruelas-Gos

Administering the School Budget & Accounting and Auditing Essay - 2

Administering the School Budget & Accounting and Auditing - Essay Example A comprehensive and aligned education program should give out the data that are necessary in answering questions like who finances education, how funds are allocated, how many funds are spending on the program, and how education resources are aligned to the achievement of students (Brimley, Rulon, Garfield, et.al, 2008). For these questions to be answered, a system of education requires more components than just finance. It needs a system of staff records, record of students, property system, program component, and a system of community service. The system of instructional agreement can be directed to records of students. This will give policymakers a Herculean analytic capability that would make timely and cost-effective decisions. This paper reports on incidents of misuse of funds that might have been avoided if a proper accounting and auditing practices had been followed. The paper discuses a situation in one of the school districts in Fentress County Tennessee. A school needs to be concerned with the achievement of a bottom line that is profitable. Many education entities have an expectation of being in a position that is breakeven whenever an academic year ends. In York elementary school, in Fentress County Tennessee, the situation is particularly different. ... This audit established that approximately $ 125,000 had been allegedly paid to unperformed work. The auditing statement showed out that there had been some misused credit cards. In this regard, the credit card of the school was used to purchase more than $ 3,500 of personal purchases that were unauthorized. This is what made the state Bureau to allege misconduct in this school. According to the audit made, no employee had been resigned from his position due to the prior audits. When the school’s principal was asked to give out an explanation for the situation, he argued that all employees in a school are administrators and that they should always make purchases even without their boss’s authorization. Additionally, a charge had been split in order to obtain the limit of the credit card. In this case, the principle added that there were some corrective measures that had already been taken in maintaining the school district. However, the measures taken had not been realiz ed; therefore, the audit concluded that there was a failure in compliance of York elementary school with the districts' procedures and policies in the school’s financial oversight and accounting. This was a terribly serious situation in the school. This report was displayed as parents and students of this school were protesting the decision of the district to put one principal on leave. After this audit, an investigation concerning the school’s financial system was set. The investigation on York elementary school reported that the school district failed to have a reliable internal control. This means that the internal control was not appropriate to prevent the misuse of specific assets. A number of employees of the school made a confirmation to the

College is a Waste of Time and Money by Caroline Bird Essay

College is a Waste of Time and Money by Caroline Bird - Essay Example The paper tells that the views and structure of the article â€Å"College is a Waste of Time and Money† by Caroline Bird are truly bound to their senses having conveyed in the author’s statement â€Å"college is the dumbest investment you can make† . That should suffice to proceed without contesting the majority in the general public who would at any time be disposed to argue â€Å"that is downright true and how can a regressed economy running scarce with job creators ever address the fresh yields of the academe, the new brood of the first-time bloodthirsty job hunters?† However, while Bird commits to this type of sentiments in her period which are presently felt as well and expresses sold-out support for the abolition of college, does it ever occur to her to ponder on how the world would look with money-driven human beings who act, talk, treat, and think like some crazy engine for dough all the time? For one, having thought ahead of the possible scenarios with that and what the author would most likely feel about each of them, he is rather afraid of acquiring much trouble in coping with that kind of future Bird insists in her sphere of change and investments. Apparently, she is quite significantly concerned with the keen reality experienced via the inverse proportionality that exists between finishing college and the hard-to-settle issue of unemployment than the core essence of tertiary education itself. Perhaps we ought to guide her perception to veer off at examining and modifying the curriculum instead of rationalizing â€Å"If high-school graduates don’t want to go, or if they don’t want to go right away, they may perceive more clearly than their elders that college is not for them† in a tone of complaint. The concept of further education is never unwise and if our main problem lies on the reluctant attitude of most 18-year-olds toward college, this can be neutralized or put to balance by focusing on the man ner educators are supposed to work on tools or techniques of fostering a stimulating atmosphere for the students. We can opt herein to find hope and realize that exploring beyond the conventional academic realm enables studying individuals to learn the remarkable key to versatile potentials and thereby gain opulent interest on succeeding with the targeted growth in both professional and economic goals as they stay in school prior. Bird primarily communicates her findings that â€Å"A great majority of our nine million college students are not in school because they want to be or because they want to learn – They are there because it has become the thing to do† (1975). Of course, we have widely known the ever-prevailing behavior among youth in transition from secondary level as such since we have gone through the stage and somehow managed to comprehend all the frailties and unpleasant feelings thereof. This we can acknowledge, nevertheless, as a normal phase of life where immaturity inevitably combines with confusion and curiosity due to the so-called ‘identity crisis’ which naturally places a young person to a state of random inquisition, denial, rebellion, and repulsion of moral discipline. Whether in and out of the academe, this condition lives as a fact and may not be prevented from happening so it would be irrational to tolerate the reasoning that college alone is responsible ju st because the 18-year-olds are being forced into a challenge or something they are not prepared yet considering which, they must thus be allowed the freedom to decide for themselves as Bird proposes. After conducting scholarly studies and interviews, Bird is eventually brought to conclude that â€Å"students are sad because they are not needed ... there is no room for so many newly minted 18-year-olds –

Statistical Techniques in Business and Economics Essay Example for Free

Statistical Techniques in Business and Economics Essay Abstract Along with the web 2.0 prevailing since the beginning of the 21st century, social media has become one of the most important tools for companies to develop the markets or public relations during this decade. Most companies around the world have a good sense of the importance of the social media. Companies use all the social media websites available to create more chances to meet more businesses online, or only to get a platform to show what they have such as products or services, even though the audiences only catch a glance of their companies’ profiles, they have already achieved their marketing purposes. Individuals are very obsessed in social media personally as well as businesses; they think social media is a great way to distinguish themselves from others or let the world get to know them. Introduction Through our survey, it is not hard to find that social media can impact businesses in some certain areas. In the U.S., with Facebook floating on the stock exchange at a mind boggling $104 billion, many naysayers predict an Internet bubble. However, there is no denying the power of social media and the impact that it can have on the business of marketing. Particularly, there are four aspects. Firstly, social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest represent a huge opportunity for businesses to grab the attention of customers while simultaneously building a brand image. There are plenty of tactics that businesses can employ to do this including the creation of brand profiles on social networks such as Facebook fan pages and creative advertising via branded podcasts and applications, also known as apps. Secondly, we know how important the word of mouth is in business. Social media platforms provide the perfect opportunity to take advantage of word of mouth and to see it spreading. Social media is growing at its fastest rate in developing countries. People are connected on a global scale and casually participate in each other’s lives through online observation. Something as simple as â€Å"Liking† a brand on Facebook can spread very quickly throughout the various social media channels. It is worth noting that individuals trust the opinions of their peers far more than a glossy magazine advert. Millions of people review products and services directly via social media sites using videos through YouTube, which in many cases are then shared and disseminated via various other social media websites. As a consequence, the public increasingly looks to social media to find reviews on various products and services to help them to make buying decisions. As a result, companies can and do provide products to popular Youtube users to review for their subscribers as well as create their own branded Youtube channels with branded videos about their products. (Social Media can impact business) Regarding communicating with customers, companies may see massive negative reviews about their products or services when they are expecting to use it as their advantage. By utilizing social media effectively, companies can reach out to dissatisfied customers directly, within their own social m edia environment, to find innovative ways of improving the product or service they have offered. When creating a social media marketing strategy, it is worth thinking very carefully about who is being targeted. There will be people within social networks who may not necessarily be customers, but who nevertheless can have a massive impact on marketing efforts. More than 80 % of that population is made up of â€Å"potential influencers†. It is worth making the effort to identify that these people are in the network and connect with them to attract shares and likes which ultimately help to spread brand name. One website which is excellent for identifying these people is Klout. Klout gives social networkers a score out of 100, which indicates how influential an individual is over their network while also identifying who the broadcasters and influencers are within that network. The purpose of the whole research process is to find out how companies use social media based on a stati stic view. Research Methodology There were 199 survey attendants given the questionnaires. The questionnaire was divided into 12 parts and each part had 3-13 questions. The questionnaires contained questions such as how companies use social media to provide customer services, marketing research, and improve the public relation with supplier or partners. We will use the information provided by the survey respondents to combine what we learned from statistics class, which included but not limited to probability from chapter 5, estimation and confidence intervals from chapter 9, one sample and two- sample test of hypothesis from chapter 10 and 11; simple linear regression and correlation which is from chapter 14, and Chi-square test. This research is based on the sets of data that were collected from Survey Monkey, collected by Survey Monkey Survey System. Survey Monkey is a company that provides platforms for those who need information for any legal purpose such as market research, education, and customer satisfaction. There are three steps to complete a survey. The surveyors usually design the surveys based on the purpose of their organizational behavior, and then they would distribute the survey to their targeted population such as customers or students; finally, they would use mathematic tools to analyze the data that was collected from the surveys. In this research paper I would like to represent some data graphs that we learned from the statistics class (Survey Monkey, 2013). First, we will show a pie chart of the gender information about the survey respondents. Table 1: What is your gender? The sample population of this survey consists of 103 (51.26%) participants who were male, while 78 (39.20%) participants were female, and 19 (9.55%) participants did not select their gender. (See table below) Among all the survey respondents, 24.12% of them were 18-24 years old, total 48 respondents; 51.76% were 25-34 years old, total 103 respondents, 6.53% were 35-44 years old, total 13 respondents, 6.53% were 45-54 years old, total 13 respondents also. Only 5 respondents (2.51%)are 55-64 years old, 0 (0%) respondents are 65-75 years old, and 17 (8.54%) participants didn’t answer this question. (See table below) Table 2: How old are you? Regarding the working experience, 39(19.6%) out of 199 respondents (100%) chose â€Å"less than 1 year†, 89 respondents (44.7%) chose â€Å"1-5 years†, 11 of them (5.5%) chose â€Å"5-10 years†, 23 respondents (11.6%) chose â€Å"more than 10 years†, and 23 respondents (11.6%) didn’t answer this question. (See Table 3 below) Table 3: How many years have you worked in company? Table 4: How dose your company use social media? Since gender, age and working experience are dependent variables that describe how company used social media. In table 4, there were 28(14%) of respondents use social media extremely likely, 31(15%) respondents use social media very likely, 61 (30%) used social media moderately likely, 39(19%) respondents used social medias slightly likely, 31(15%) participants did not use social media very likely, and 19(9%) respondents did not use social medina at all, and 24(12%) respondents chose â€Å"don’t know†. (See Table 4 below) Table5: Relationship between companies founded years and how long does company use social media? Base on this table we can tell that the relationship between the companies founded date and the year they began using social media. Normally, The Company began using social media for 1-2 years when the company founded 1-5years, the rate of possibility is 3/179; the company founded 5-10 years and they used social media for 2-4years, the rate of possibility is 4/179. ] The company uses 4-6years social media when the company founded 10-15years, the rate of possibility is 8/179; finally, the company used social media above 6 years when the company founded more than 20 years, the rate of possibility is 22/179. Data Result and Analysis Descriptive Statistic To help explain descriptive statistics, we will use the total number of How long has the companies begun using social media, and based on the description above, we will demonstrate that how likely is the companies going to adopt new social media applications in the next 12 months. (See table below) Descriptive statistics can include graphical summaries that show the spread of the data, and numerical summaries that either measures the central tendency (a typical data value) of a data set or that describes the spread of the data (Gerald, 2011). There are five different tests including â€Å"Hypothesis (one sample)†, â€Å"Hypothesis (two sample)†, â€Å"F-test†, â€Å"Regression†, and â€Å"ANOVA (multiple sample)† that we used in data result and analysis to illustrate the relationship among different data. I. Hypothesis (One Sample) Question background is permitting employees to use mobile applications to interact with customers. We hypothesize that respondents would largely use mobile applications of social media to interact with customers at 4 of 5 scales. In order to prove our hypothesis we use one sample hypothesis method. We hypothesize the null is at 4 scale of 5, and we use 95% as the confident level, so the alpha is 5%. Because we know the sample mean (S), so we choose the T test. To perform the test, please see Table 8 below. To conclude that because the P (T=t)= 0.00019813, and it less than 5%, so we should reject the null which means the employees use the mobile application such as social media to interact with customers is less than 4-scale. II. Hypothesis (Two Sample) Background question is how social media used for company awareness and PR purpose. In order to prove our hypothesis that two industries use social media at the same frequency we use two sample hypothesis methods. We hypothesize that the permitting employees to use mobile applications to interact with customers is equal to the employees who use the Internet tools. And we know the sample mean (S) so we also use the T test. To perform the test: (See Table below) Conclusion: Because the P (T=t)=2.08, and it larger than 0.05, so we choose the accept the null, which means the retail industry and business service industry used social media for PR purpose at the same frequency. III. F- Test Background question is to market and operate our business, our organization has done the following activities: 3.1. Permitting employees to use their creative ideas to facilitate business 3.2. Permitting employees to use Internet tools to interact with each other The F-test is designed to test if two population variances are equal; in order to prove our hypothesis we use two sample hypothesis methods as well. It does this by comparing the ratio of two variances. So, if the variances are equal, the ratio of the variances will be 1. We hypothesis the permitting that to market and operate our business, our organization has done the following activities, permitting employees to use their creative ideas to facilitate business. We use F-Test two-sample for variances firstly, and then we will use T-Test two-sample assuming equal variances to perform the test. (See Table 10 below) Permitting employees to use internet tools to interact with each other| Mean| 3.755102041| 3.888324873| Variance| 1.867922554| 1.579301771| Observations| 196| 197| df| 195| 196| F| 1.182752142| 　| P (F=f) one-tail| 0.120713955| 　| F Critical one-tail| 1.265936455| 　| Because the P- value equal to 0.120713955, so we use equal variance and t -test to test sample means. To perform the t-test, please see Table 11 below. Permitting employees to use internet tools to interact with each other| | Mean| 3.755102041| 3.888324873| Variance| 1.867922554| 1.579301771| Observations| 196| 197| Pooled Variance| 1.723243082| 　| Hypothesized Mean Difference| 0| 　| df| 391| 　| T Stat| -1.005935799| 　| P (T=t) one-tail| 0.157534284| 　| T Critical one-tail| 1.648760041| 　| P (T=t) two-tail| 0.315068568| 　| T Critical two-tail| 1.966049679| 　| Because the P (T=t)=0,155490816, and it larger than 0.05, so the conclusion is we choose to accept the null, which means the permitting employees to use mobile applications to interact with customers is equal the employees who use the Internet tools. IV. Regression Background questions are following: X:In what year was your company founded? Y1: How long has your company begun using social media (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Sina Weibo, QQ, etc.)? Y2: How many employees currently work for your organization? Regression and correlation is a method that we use to find the relationship between dependent variables (Ys) and independent variables (Xs). From Table 6 we can tell that the p-value of variable X which is â€Å"when the company was founded† is not significant means it is not related to Y1 of â€Å"How many employees currently work for your organization? †, and the p-value of variable Y2 of â€Å"How long has your company begun using social media† is not significant explains that it is related to â€Å"In what year was your company founded?† From the regression analysis table # 6, we can find out that 57.57% of the numbers of employees are explained by when the company was founded. From the regression analysis table # 7, we can find out that 36.1% of the social media uses for companies are expla ined by when the company was founded. Table 12: Table 13: To market and operate our business, our organization uses the Internet for the following activities: V. ANOVA analysis The background questions are below. 5.1. Permitting employees to use Internet tools to interact with customers 5.2. Permitting employees to use Internet tools to interact with each other From Table 14, the P-value for rows indicates three different activities are highly significant, which mean three activities have different means. P- value for column indicates that 200 different respondents are not significant which means 199 different respondents have practiced similar activities. (Table 14 below) Conclusion From this research, we conclude that generally, male uses social media more often than female, it is because male is still the mainstream of the business area; from the survey, we got to know that most of the social media users were very young and had a little working-experience. We surprisingly found out that most companies use social media moderately, to be specific, employees use mobile applications to interact with customers at 4-scale of 5 which means they did not use them extremely likely. We would expect they used them very often. One is within our expectation that the earlier the company founded, the longer period they use social media, most of companies used social media for long time though they did not use them very often which explains than people are willingly trying new technology, however, it takes time for them to form a habit. We also surveyed people to compare the frequency of smartphone application use and Internet use; we found out that people approximately use them half and half. From this result, we can conclude that there are lots of s martphone or tablet technologies grow very rapidly and people can complete their business process through cellphone instead of laptop or desktop that are much more cumbersome to carry. In a word, we can make precise decision process though both survey results and analysis results in the related business. Social media is a blessing technology, which we will rely more in our businesses and daily lives, we will find out more advantage of social media and prove it with data analysis and improve our life quality.

Google Core Values Essay Example for Free

Google Core Values Essay Google’s mission has always been â€Å"To organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. † Google has intended to be the good guys of the corporate world. It sees great as not being an endpoint but a start point for new things. By the means of innovation which is its lifeblood, it aims to improve upon in unexpected ways. For example, when it saw that search worked well for properly spelled works, it also made the search easier for typos by introducing the spell checker. It also thrives on the motto of making money without doing evil. It follows honesty and integrity in the things it does. It does not allow ads to be displayed on results page if they are irrelevant. Advertising is also identified as â€Å"Sponsored Link†, so it does not compromise the integrity. Google supports a style of marketing called â€Å"marketing asset management† through which advertising resources and budget are constantly monitored. It wants advertising to be treated like an asset depending on market conditions. It never takes success for granted. Always thinks like an underdog and wants its employees to be humble with success. It aims at earning customer and user loyalty and also respect to maintain great products and services every day. It expects employees to honor commitments and enjoy each other’s company celebrating both professional and personal accomplishments. Sustainable long-term growth and profitability is the key to its success. It rides on doing things that matter and doing it efficiently. It focusses on doing one thing really, really well. Through continuous iteration on difficult problems it has been able to solve complex issues and provide continuous improvements to make finding information a fast and seamless experience for billions of people. It works towards providing people with access to information wherever they are and whenever they need it. Google’s goal is to reach as many people as possible on the Web- whether by PC or by phone. Hence globally Google held a dominant lead with 89 percent of the market share versus Yahoo’s 5 percent and MSN’s 3 percent.

Corporate Social Responsibility in the ICT Industry

Corporate Social Responsibility in the ICT Industry 1. Introduction ICT industry has experienced rapid growth characterised by strong competition in which companies are increasingly focussing in improving their core competencies such as innovation, marketing, and branding to maintain competitive advantage. Manufacturing and supply chain are usually outsourced to developing countries; leading to complex multi dimensional relationships between companies. To maintain operational efficiency companies a lot of times dont pay heed to environment and low power stakeholders such as employees, NGOs etc., and therefore lack a systematic CSR (corporate social responsibility) framework. According to a finding by Forrester Group (Figure 1), 34 % of organizations are now pursuing a CSR action plan and about 13% have already implemented one (Forrester, 2009). CESR framework enables identification of root causes of issues, establishes remedial processes and supports continual improvements. Companies already use business management systems (BMS) and utilizing CSR man agement standards such as ISO 26000 and ISO 14001 should not be difficult to adapt. These standards will act as performance indicators for companys CSR. Having an integrated approach towards business and CSR ensures companys long term viability by not only addressing environmental and societal issues but also developing business process, improving quality, and controllability. This paper will show that despite organizations being reluctant in realizing the not so visible returns by investing in CSER, it is increasingly becoming critical to incorporate the social and environmental strategies within the business structure. This paper analyses the major challenges, root causes for these challenges faced by ICT industry, and concludes by recommending a series of procedures that can be adopted by companies to ensure their viability and sustainability in the present and future. 2. Prevalent CSR issues in the industry The major CESR (corporate environment and social responsibility) issues identified in organizations, especially in developing countries that manufacture 45% of all ICT products are excessive working hours, worker health and safety, poor employer-employee relationship, e-waste and pollution (Janco Associates Inc., 2009). 2. 1 Poor employee engagement Many workers in the ICT industry, especially in the manufacturing sector, are hired regularly on short term contracts and laid off at the end of their term. Under this set up employers get away without hiring full-time employees; thereby, avoiding higher wages and benefits, which would have been incurred otherwise. This happens quite often in developing countries such as China and Philippines. This prevents workers from actively partaking in companies growth and decreases loyalty. In addition, the manufacturing industry is plagued with workers having to work mandatory overtime in order to meet high production demands at varying times. This requires flexible as well as long working hours for employees. In many developing countries, workers are threatened to be fired in case they do not comply with these work schedules. Long working hours can also be highly detrimental towards the morale of the workers and hurts the motivation of the labour force. 2.2 Health and safety issues (U.S. Geological Survey, 2008) Majority of electronic products manufactured by ICT industry contain some form of hazardous substances. Workers in developing countries are constantly exposed to these materials that pose significant risks to their health hazards. According to Ladou (1994), ICT manufacturing workers are exposed to more toxins than workers in the chemical or pesticide industry are. 2.3 Electronic Waste (E-Waste) One of the greatest environmental issues the ICT industry currently faces is inconsistent e-waste policies adopted not just by companies but governments across the world. http://www.pcij.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/e-waste-dumping-routes-large.jpgFigure 2: Sources and destinations of e-waste Due to rapid technological developments and newer design models of cell phones, the average lifespan of a cell phone is only 18 months in OECD countries (U.S. Geological Survey, 2008). This creates tremendous amounts of e-waste generated that is exported in tonnes on a daily basis to developing countries. Many times this waste is exported under the category of workable conditions though it is dysfunctional. Many recyclers are not certified and do not follow environmental or social standards to recycle. Figure 2 identifies sources and destinations of most of e-waste. It is unsurprising to see that developed nations are using developing countries as their e-waste graveyard. Most companies use third party contractors, who form part of a nascent industry, to handle product disposal and recycling. 3. Root-causes of the challenges in the ICT sector Information and Communications Technology (ICT) companies are constantly bombarded by protests from the public, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and governments with respect to their inattention towards social and environmental responsibilities. There are several reasons why these companies are unable to adequately execute their aforementioned responsibilities. The following paragraphs will highlight some of reasons and identify the root causes of the challenges ICT companies face in this regard (FIAS BSR, 2007). 3.1 Significant upfront costs without tangible benefits According to FIAS and BSR (2007), ICT companies are constantly challenged by issues of feasibility when considering an investment to promote their corporate social responsibility (CSR), due to the uncertain return on investment (ROI). Financial return through CSR is usually intangible and therefore difficult to keep a track of and measure, hence heightening the risk perceived by managers. However according to FIAS and BSRs (2007) survey, investments in CSR can result in lower employee attrition rates, increased process efficiency, healthier business relationship with customers and high influx of customers among other various benefits. Nevertheless, the perceived financial uncertainty inherent in CSR investments leads many companies to overlook the benefits highlighted by the aforementioned survey and simply regard it as a long term strategy with no guarantees. Some companies wait to become late adopters until the impact of CSR is tested and tried in their industry before incorporatin g it within their business model. 3.2 Heavy investments FIAS and BSR (2007) found out that companies implementation of a CSR strategy could increase costs by 3-5% or perhaps even more, in addition to costs incurred through the adoption of new equipment and technologies to promote better environmental or health and safety practices for example. As well, the management has to invest time, effort and other resources to perform training and develop internal policies. These factors add to the uncertainty and perceived burden of CSR investments and may further act as deterrents for companies to invest significant resources. 3.3 Complexities related to overtime Unmanageable excess overtime is one of the greatest CSR challenges ICT manufacturing suppliers face. According to FIAS BSRs survey (2007), a significant number of suppliers believe that they could fulfill all CSR expectations except excess overtime. The major reason behind this issue is overtime decisions are outside of the suppliers control. The manufacturing industry faces a lot of fluctuation in manufacturing demand that results in a lack of predictable product volumes. Other factors such as changes in the workforce, fluctuations in raw materials prices, evolving labour and environment laws, and even last minute changes in customer orders complicate this process. While companies do make efforts to responsibly manage workers work-life balance, in the case of suppliers that hire hundreds of thousands of workers, this process may well be extremely challenging. 3.4 Implementation of CSR expectations in supply chains The CSR efforts of multinational corporations (MNCs) can multiply significantly if they realize the importance of motivating and convincing all of their supply chain partners within the hierarchy to adopt responsibility towards the community and environment they operate in. However, this can be very challenging and companies typically feel responsible for only towards their next suppliers performance and are not aware of suppliers activities down the supply chain. MNCs outsourcing into developing countries bear the responsibility of ensuring that their suppliers conform to ethical values and international standards 4. Recommendations Leading organizations have embraced a leadership role in CSR initiatives because they realize that by investing in the community, the environment, and its internal resources they create cost savings, competitive advantages and continued growth (T Systems, 2009). Central to any companys success has been a very trusting working atmosphere that involves open communication between employees and management. Initiatives such as daycare services, preventive back pain workshops, support programs for smokers and subsidized healthy food and gym programs have helped in promoting active employee engagement. Various companies are actively involved in helping non-profit organizations with financial and non-financial measures. A lack of gender diversity, specifically women in the workforce is a constant challenge for the information and communication technology (ICT) industry as a whole as over 80% of the industrys workforce is male. Another issue is environmental awareness among employees, customers and its supply-chain. For example, employees may not be adopting proper recycling practices or cutting down on wastage. Customers may not be eager to adopt virtualization, which is a technology that enables more efficient server energy use, because of a fear of privacy breaches. Similarly, with regards to the supply chain, large e-waste problems may not be addressed adequately, leading to large amounts of waste due to constant hardware turnover that is irresponsibly disposed in the developing world, thereby contributing to pollution and possibly negative health outcomes. Great changes can be brought by adopting small initiatives throughout the industry by every company. Eventually these changes will become the norm of the industry and perhaps transform into standards and laws. Implementation of a split focus between environmental, and internal and external social initiatives is essential to satisfying all key stakeholders. The following table highlights some of the positive and negative aspects of adopting such an approach: PROS CONS Builds and maintains brand image Consolidates approach and addresses key areas of corporate concerns Can choose from a wide array of projects No catch-up required for upcoming industry/regulations for environmental/social practices Satisfies all stakeholders needs High resource needs Splitting corporate focus Takes focus away from customer acquisition Therefore as the table indicates, this option addresses both social and environmental factors; however it lessens the overall effect on both areas compared to if they were pursued individually. 4.1 Create an enabling ICT policy framework that incorporates a holistic CSR strategy within the business model Companies need to create and integrate a CSR strategy within their existing business model to be able to fully engrain CSR into their company. This strategy recognizes and addresses issues independently on a priority basis. Every company will find different issues it needs to address; for instance, a chemical processing plant will have to find the best possible way to dispose off waste responsibly, whereas, an electronics manufacturer will address the issue of toxic metals being used in production. Once the company is able to establish and adhere to its CSR mission, it then can communicate these values among its supply chain and members of the ICT industry. The goal is to adopt a strategy that maximizes sustainability in the following areas: brand image, stakeholder satisfaction, and long term viability. 4.2 Create incentives for suppliers Suppliers consider incentives from customers as being a strong motivator to improve their CSR performance. Therefore, companies should determine which incentives would help their suppliers perform better in meeting CSR expectations. Some examples of incentives could be a combination of longer contract terms, increased purchase volumes, higher prices and public recognition through awards and certificates. The amount of incentives can be linked to different levels of performance shown by the suppliers. Companies need to realize that providing these incentives may hurt their profits initially, but in the long run the advantages derived from better CSR performance, such as less need for monitoring, reliable supply chains, diminished risk to brand image, improved product quality, and better operated facilities, could potentially counter the initial reduction in profits. 4.3 Implement Standard industry-wide codes A common industry standard is essential to guide and monitor compliance for companies. Codes such as the Electronics Industry Code of Conduct are universally identified and accepted as being a tool to improve processes and methodologies. Additionally the presence of one industry standard increases documentation and reporting efficiency as there will be less duplication, inconsistency and confusion. 4.4 Conduct audits for improvement rather than compliance Companies perform audits merely as a responsibility to get over with. However, audits are to serve as a learning opportunity by identifying issues and areas for improvement. Audits should be able to not only tell companies the degree of compliance with the standards but also give a larger picture of companys fulfillment of its commitment to CSR. Following the audits company can arrange training sessions to remedy the weaknesses identified in the audits (FIAS BSR, 2007). 4.5 Involve and implement responses from all stakeholders In order to achieve this, companies can implement the CSR strategic process that TELUS has been able to utilize successfully. This process engages internal and external stakeholders to develop a CSR strategy that is continuously reviewed and realigned to achieve results. Involving stakeholders during various stages of strategy incorporation enables development of a wholesome strategy, which satisfies needs of all social and environment aspects. Typically, NGOs and environmentalists are not involved in companys CSR strategy framing, thereby, limiting companies performance in green sector. CSR 4.6 E-waste Management System With regards to e-waste management, the goal is to find a clean, economical and constructive means of disposal. As such, the adoption of an e-Market for Returned Deposit system similar to the model outlined by Kahhat, Kim et.al is recommended (Kahat, Kim, Xu, Allenby, Williams, Zhang, 2008). This system will consist of the development of a database that will act as a forum for suppliers and organizations looking for cheap, reusable and recyclable hardware. This database provides suppliers with an outlet to dispose of their grandfathered and unusable hardware in a responsible and economic way. As well, e-waste disposal companies (who meet WEEE standards) could access the forum to look for hardware that they may need. There could also be a separate section for donation to schools and non-profit organizations. The hope is that this forum will help shrink the digital divide and decrease pollution from e-waste. This site would be directly influencing their customers as well as their suppliers to dispose of their e-waste in a constructive and responsible manner while assisting in the further development of the communitys technological know-how, thereby shrinking the digital divide. Finally, companies can begin offering their expertise in environmental efficiencies in order to create an ethical supply chain. This process will start by educating suppliers and moving on to educating other organizations and may represent a future revenue stream. 4.7 Employee Engagement As part of an initiative to increase employee engagement while addressing companies strategy of socially responsible behaviour, the development of a cross-functioning CSR Task Force in every company is recommended. This groups mandate will be to initiate, develop and implement new CSR initiatives designed to enhance and add to the companys current CSR strategy. A senior management director, who will act as a facilitator for the committee, will champion this task force. Beyond this role, he or she will act merely as a symbolic head of the committee. The idea behind this arrangement is to ensure that upper management is kept abreast of homegrown ideas and developments and to make sure they remain engaged in the overall CSR strategy. Members of the task force will be employees selected from different functional areas of the company. Intra-company elections will be held on an annual basis to select a committee head (non-management), who will be the main driver and coordinator of new CSR ideas and strategies. By having non-upper management employees lead this task force, a way for employees to gain valuable leadership experience will be realized. Cisco Systems has implemented a similar program and to date they have experienced very successful results (Creary, 2010). This project allows Host Europe to engage its employees and involve them in a strategically important initiative all while reaping the benefits of new and innovative CSR ideas derived from a CSR think-tank at a low cost. Such a task force will also act as CSR consultants that hopefully will educate and help implement CSR strategies that mirror leading companies strategies up the supply chain. Depending on how the CSR consultants are received by suppliers, there is potential that this could become a new revenue stream as suppliers try to reach the customers position. In order to encourage engagement from all employees we suggest that, in conjunction with the newly appointment CSR Task Force, companies begin an employee efficiency reward system where employees are rewarded financially for the degree of environmentally efficient measures they take. These measures would be decided by the CSR team and could include anything from car-pooling to personal contribution to community programs geared at environmental clean-ups, to outside education of local businesses. Employeess CSR commitment can be measured in their annual performance review. At the end of the year, the CSR Task Force can vote on the top CSR performers at the company and bonuses can be given out to them. 4.8 Focus on Diversity To address the lack of female representatives in the ICT industry, companies can seek membership in local female associations like Organization of Women in International Trade (OWIT) and Association for Womens Rights in Development (AWID). These organizations concentrate on developing womens technical skills, offers networking opportunities, career guidance and increase awareness and interest in the field of ICT. Through these channels, companies can attract top students to through internships or executive hiring programs. Other senior female executives in the ICT industry can act as champions for the overall initiative by participating in information sessions, mentorship programs and initiatives like job shadowing. 4.9 Effective Human Resource Planning To ensure that the company has the right people in the right place at the right time, I would suggest the adoption of Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP) (Conference Board of Canada, 2009). This involves identifying hiring needs based on the projects companies plan to undertake in the next 3-5 years, evaluating their options to fill those positions based on skills, identifying gaps and finally developing a plan to tackle them. SWP will help companies meet talent needs based on different market conditions, account for new opportunities and projects that may be implemented in that timeline. The SWP incorporates initiatives that develop talent internally as well as develop a recruitment plan to attract external talent. 5. Conclusion CSR needs to be fundamentally integrated into business operations and relationships. In many companies, CSR is the absent link that could potentially help companies grow responsibly and sustainably along with its stakeholders. Increasingly CSR is becoming more and more critical to a companys success as customers become more aware of their surroundings. Deployment of CSR adds incredible value to a companys business while also supporting communities and the environment. Adopting CESR policies will also equip companies to readily conform to impending legislations and regulations and organizations will be well prepared to comply with standards. During the process of implementing these CSR initiatives, companies should start with easily adoptable features such as energy efficient usage of resources at work. Many of the recommendations made in this paper do not require extensive capital commitments; rather, attitudinal changes in the way companies operate. Other recommendations however, su ch as building energy efficient data centres and other ICT infrastructure, may require a considerable amount of time and financial investments (Fernando Okuda, 2009). Through partnership, organizations can encourage and support one another to adopt and adhere to their commitments. If systematically approached and consolidated, these initiatives will definitely provide companies with excellent and far-reaching improvements (T Systems, 2009).