No Witchcraft for Sale

Gina M. Dees English IV- Honors Mrs. Daly 11/11/12 Culture at its Best â€Å"Piccanin,† shouted Teddy, â€Å"get out of my way! † And he raced in circles around the black child until he was frightened, and fled back to the bush. † This scene from Doris Lessings â€Å"No Witchcraft for Sale† depicts a child being affected by the results of apartheid, a policy or system of segregation or discrimination on grounds of race, in South Africa. Similar to segregation in America, apartheid separated the blacks and white into two different classes; the blacks being of lower class and whites having high rank in society.Gideon, a cook in Doris Lessing’s short story and the main character, served the Farquar family all of his life. Even though this separation deemed whites as superior, this separation occurred because of cultural differences. As the story begins the audience is introduced to the Farquar’s family who has just brought their first child, Tedd y, into the world. This family, the bosses or the masters lived on a compound and represent the oppressors. This family has a cook servant named Gideon who represents the oppressed.Gideon and the Farquar’s young child Teddy have a strong bond from the beginning. Gideon acted as a father in many ways to the Farquar’s child. Their bond was so extraordinary in this story that is set in a time in South Africa when blacks were treated inferior to whites. Though it was evident Gideon and Teddy’s relationship was real it did not prevent the elements of what racism teaches. Little time was spent by Gideon caring for his family or even being there for his son. Gideon played tirelessly with Teddy catching him when he fell as he learned to walk and tossing him up in the air.Gideon’s son could only watch from the edge of the bush and gaze in awe of the young white boy his same age. Each had a curiosity for the other. Teddy once put out his hand in curiosity to touch the face and hair of a black boy. Gideon’s bond is ironic because whites treated the black natives as if they were so much less than they were, yet the very person coaching a white child to lean to walk was a black man who earned the admiration of his superior and increases in his wages over other workers on the compound.When Gideon says to Mrs. Farquar â€Å"Ah missus, these are both children, and one will grow up to be a baas, and one will be a servant† he accepts the fact that no matter how much love he has for the boy that Teddy will conform to the nasty ways of society. Gideon also gave the child his nickname â€Å"Little Yellow Head†. This nickname shows that Gideon had a level of love and adoration for the young white child. Although this relationship with the child was evident, is it possible Gideon showed the child so much affection to avoid punishment?Gideon even realized that the child he had once held and nurtured would grow up to conform to society. This became evident on the day Teddy used his scooter to frighten Gideon’s son and when reprimanded about the mean act gave the defiant response, â€Å"He is only a black boy. † This showed indifference to Gideon’s son as a person by regarding his act equal to what had been done to scatter squawking chickens and irritated dogs. One afternoon as Teddy was walking exploring the outdoors, a snake spit poisonous venom into his eye.Everyone in the home knew that he could potentially go blind. The child writhed in agony as his mother tried her best to assist her son but she knew not of a cure. When she called for Gideon he sprung into action and ran off into the bush for some herbal medicine that was common among the other African natives to handle being poisoned. When he returned he held in his hand a root. Gideon chewed the root, spit its juices into the eyes of the boy without hesitation even with his mother crying out in protest and pressed it into the child†™s eyes guaranteeing he would be cured.As the reader, I could not help but to feel a certain amount of respect and love towards Gideon, as the Farquar’s did because of his rapid response to help the afflicted child. This quick response was borne out of love for Teddy. Not only were there elements of Gideon and Teddy’s relationship, but certain cultural differences kept the baas’ and natives separate. The natives lived off of ways of the land and kept secrets of remedies to each other. I believe they kept the remedies a secret in order to preserve their culture and practices.The text reads â€Å"No one can live in Africa or at least on the veld, without learning very soon that there is an ancient wisdom of leaf and soil and season-and, too, perhaps most important of all, of the darker tracts of the human mind-which is the black mans heritage. Up and down the district people were telling anecdotes, reminding each other of things that had happened to them. † In contrast the whites believed in medical advances and were skeptical about the accuracy of some of the natives â€Å"bush medicines†.When the scientist states â€Å"We are always checking up on this kind of story, and we draw a blank every time† it proves his disbelief of the African remedies and that he does not trust that they will work. Also the scientist and The Farquar’s try to persuade Gideon to disclose the root by assuring him that the information will be used for the common good. This is a cultural clash because the whites are trying to advance their modern medicine as Gideon is trying to save his cultural practices. Gideon would not let the sacred root of the African witch doctors benefit humanity for a cost.The friendship between Gideon and The Farquar’s is affected by his defiance. They begin to look at him with disdain and annoyance and Gideon displayed hostility, stubbornness and made contradictory statements about the location of the r oot. This cultural clash could also be connected to the power struggles displayed throughout the short story. The scientist and Farquar’s wanted power over Gideon so he would tell the truth about the root, but Gideon maintained control by leading everyone into the bush on a wild goose chase.The text reads â€Å"He (Gideon) picked up, without an attempt at looking anything but casual, a handful of blue flowers that had been growing plentifully all down the path they had come. † Gideon is mocking the scientist and Farquar’s will and intelligence as he had them walk 6 miles in the bush to search for this root when all he did was pick up a measly flower that had been growing down the whole path. He showed them and the readers that he was not afraid to protect his cultural practices.

Is censorship necessary? Essay

With the advent of new media, the dissemination of information has reached an unparalleled scale, bringing to the fore the inevitable reality of censorship. The issue of censorship has been a contentious one and conservatives argue for its instatement while liberals dispute its existence. In my opinion, I think that a form of censorship has to be put in place to maintain order in a society and protect the young from malignant content. However, many dispute the extent to which censorship should be put in place, arguing that censorship is a powerful weapon which can be abused by depraved individuals. Besides, they too argue that censorship is an ineffective tool in fulfilling its said purpose. Firstly, censorship remains imperative in maintaining order in a society. It impedes the dissemination of seditious content on the internet, thereby preventing any form of unhealthy social discourse and maintaining harmony among people. The dawn of the internet age has empowered people to voice out their own opinions whilst behind the perceived security of their keyboard. This freedom of speech enabled by the internet inevitably calls for some form of oversight over its users. Not long ago, online furore erupted over notorious sex bloggers Alvin and Vivian, who posted a photo of themselves eating â€Å"Bak Kut Teh† or pork ribs soup. What caused the controversy here was the catchline of the photo which read, â€Å"Happy breaking fast† in english. This resulted in a huge uproar from the muslim community as many felt that he was making a mockery out of the muslim tradition of fasting and abstinence from pork. Such racially insensitive remarks might damage the social fabric of a society, resulting in undesirable social implications and disrupting the racial harmony of a society. With censorship, such seditious content can be contained and order will be preserved. Censorship is also necessary to protect the young from the hordes of violent and sexual content found on the media. Along with the expansion of the internet, malicious content has proliferated across the media. Youths of today are being exposed to the media from a very young age and they are highly susceptible to influence from the media. Reality television shows such as WWE(World Wrestling Entertainment) portray scenes of violence as men take on one another in wrestling. What is particularly worrying here is that  most of these scenes are acted out and amplified for dramatic effect. Young children may not be able to discern reality from the virtual world and they may be influenced by the violent content. While there is no hard scientific data or causal link between media violence and real life aggression, psychiatrists have proven with empirical evidence that constant exposure to violent content ultimately has an impact on behaviour. Besides, the proliferation of pornographic cont ent on the internet is another cause for concern. With the internet, pornography is easily accessible to children and minors are viewing pornography at a very young age. The extreme nature of pornography might distort their views on relationships and promote a more liberal and permissive attitude towards sex among teenagers. This might be the cause of the rise in teenage pregnancies ,sexually transmitted diseases and other societal issues. In this respect, we can clearly see the need for censorship on the internet in order to protect the young from being negatively influenced by the media. However, censorship is a powerful weapon which can be abused by depraved individuals as tools of oppression. In authoritarian states where the media is controlled by the state, censorship allows for the incumbent to have complete control over its people. North Korea comes to mind where censorship and oppression is concern. The state-controlled media in North Korea censors nearly everything from the outside world and selectively reveals information to the people. This carefully orchestrated media campaign is used to boost the image of their supreme leader Kim Jong Un and build a cult of personality around him. Censorship in North Korea also helps in manipulating the masses. By blocking access to the outside world, people are unable to be discerning about the information they receive from the state media and they are blinded from the truth. From this perspective, we can see how censorship, when used unwisely, becomes a tool of oppression. Lastly, censorship is also ineffective in fulfilling its purpose and it is, in some cases, self defeating. Censorship has given rise to what is now known as the Streisand effect- whereby the act of trying to suppress information results in the greater spread of the information in question. Where censorship is practiced, there would certainly be attempts to  circumvent the system and access the censored content. Such is the case of the Great Firewall of China. While it is considered by many to be a huge success, there has been many methods of bypassing the system since its instatement in 2003. This illustrates the ineffectiveness of censorship in withholding information from the people. In this regard, we can see that censorship is not the best method in regulating the media. To sum up, i think that although censorship is not entirely advantageous to the people, it is still imperative in protecting the interests of minors and maintaining order in a society. Censorship acts as a regulator of the internet and it is something which will remain relevant in time to come.

Insider trading about Martha Stewart

When she was young, Martha committed her attempts to school assignments, obtaining report books full of best marks. She gained a scholarship to Barnard College, where she employed as a model and wedded with a law scholar, and changing her name becomes Martha Stewart. She discontinue her career as model when she was pregnant. Then she worked as a broker for few years. She was pretty good in doing the job, so she would have recognized about insider trading laws (â€Å"Martha Stewart, broker indicted†, 2003).When she was a college student, Stewart involved in business with her friend. Stewart began a catering business. Her catering business became productive and successful. Stewart started a retail store and sold her home equipments. She co-wrote a best-seller book, entertaining peoples, with long-period fashion ace Elizabeth Hawes. She began cropping up on Television talk shows with confidential information for troubled housewives. She was also having crucial problem with her hu sband. After Stewarts divorced, her husband married the worker. In the meantime, Martha Stewart's business remained successful (â€Å"Martha Stewart, broker indicted†, 2003).Stewart launched her magazine, Martha Stewart Living, in 1991. It became an achievement. Two years later, she began her own TV show, Martha Stewart Living. Initially, the insiders were unsure it would run well, but surely it was become tremendously rewarding TV show. Stewart generated a lot of money increasingly at that period (â€Å"Martha Stewart, broker indicted†, 2003).Insider Trading in case of Martha StewartThe Securities and Exchange Commission, in 2002, informed that Martha Stewart was investigated for insider trading case. In December 2001, she had sold 3,928 shares of ImClone Systems merely ahead the Food ; Drug Administration informed that it was entrancing ImClone's utilization to sell a modern supposed wonder medicine. It seemed like standard insider trading, and it believably was (â⠂¬Å"Stephen Moore on Martha Stewart & Insider Trading†, 2004).However, inquisitively the federal officials never testified this in courtyard, or even attempted to establish it. Alternatively, they appointed Stewart with four law-breaking, such as confederacy, construction of natural virtue, and two numbers of creating incorrect statements to officials. A jury said that she is blameworthy, and she was decided to be prisoned for five months. They thought that it is a law-breaking to telling the falsity to a fed. The speech communication does not have to be recorded, and witnesses are elective (â€Å"Stephen Moore on Martha Stewart & Insider Trading†, 2004).Martha Stewart has been in the news program and media for some months because the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission considers that she was confirmed by Sam Waksal that his company ImClone’s cancer medicine had been declined by the Food and Drug Administration earlier than this report was published (Schroede r, J., 2004).This state of affairs was a great stroke to his company and the monetary value of its stock descended spectacularly. Nevertheless, Martha Stewart was not monetary injured because she had her stock broker sell her 4000 shares earlier than this information was published. If it is accurate, and it should be lined it has not been evidenced yet, and so she is chargeable of insider trading. The Stewart beliefs should make a resentful after-sensation in conservatives' openings for other causes. Stewart was a unfortunate person of socio-economic class conflict that has filtered down from the unintelligent (Schroeder, J., 2004).One of the panelists remarked joyously that this final judgment was warrantied, because it would bring a subject matter to the â€Å"valuable and strong†, which they cannot escape with such maltreatments. The print media also pleasured in performing the â€Å"socio-economic class conflict   correspondence† by spiting Martha Stewart for suc h wrongdoings as dressing high-priced jewelry at the time of the legal proceeding (â€Å"Stephen Moore on Martha Stewart ; Insider Trading†, 2004).Stewart now confronts possibly two years in correctional institution and the termination of as a minimum one-half of her financial condition, all because she handled to preserve herself $50,000 selling ImClone stock at the time of she perceived that one of the medicines the companies had been expanding had unsuccessful to acquire FDA acceptance (â€Å"Martha Stewart Stock Scandal†, 2003).In conclusion, Martha Stewart has been one of the great and victorious entrepreneurs of this contemporaries era. She produced hundreds of millions of dollars of innovative economic condition and nearly an innovative business enterprise that was effectively by herself. She made many occupations and was a booming enterpriser who materialized to produce much money.The origin my edginess is that a number peoples in our social group praise her ru ination incisively because of her tremendous attainment. However, attainment is a moral excellence in United States, and while the people begin handling it as frailty, they minimize their competitive arrangement. And so they have an untold greater difficulty in their social group than whether people are exchanging on active stock confidential information among the period of time.BibliographyMartha Stewart, broker indicted. 2003. [Online]Available at: http://money.cnn.com/2003/06/04/news/martha_indict?cnn=yesMartha Stewart settles SEC's insider trading case. 2004. [Online]Available at: http://redorbit.com/news/general/605372/†¦/index.htmlSchroeder, J. 2004. SSRN-Envy, Jealousy and Insider Trading: The Case of Martha Stewart. [Online]Available at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=419580SEC Charges Martha Stewart, Broker Peter Bacanovic with Illegal Inside. 2003. [Online]Available at: http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2003-69.htmStephen Moore on Martha Stewart & Insi der Trading. 2004. [Online]Available at: http://www.nationalreview.com/moore/moore200403090901.asp

Corporate governance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Corporate governance - Essay Example Moreover, evidence of working together as a team and the essence of synergy would always ensure sustainable competitive market. This is what is targeted as one of the most principle aspects by investors and its slightest brink make an organization susceptible to tragic downfall incase of scam or misappropriation (Geel 2011). Hawkama, an institute of corporate, being put in place by independent international institutions that teamed up together, was meant to reform good governance by helping the countries that participated in the treaty to have good financial and economic integration amongst them and other countries across the globe. The main mission of the Hawkama treaty was to help the countries involved develop good strategies necessary to improve universally, well integrated corporate governance. Besides, it was meant to enhance efficiency in relation to coordination, designing, planning and actual rolling of proficient corporate governance reforms. Moreover, the institution is eq uipped with the right assessment tools to help in determining the outcome of corporate governance policies at all private sectors. Hawkama article, however, recommended the following as the right governance steps (Bornstein 2005). Demonstrating commitment to good corporate governance For an organization to reap the benefits of good corporate governance, it must demonstrate its willingness of putting the practice to the later. All the stakeholders, which are considered as part and parcel to an organization must show commitment and join hands in working together towards building a single business case of corporate governance. For this to be effectively enacted, managers of the organizations and other leaders should be encouraged to attend talks about institutional good governance. Hypothetically, the article has given an illustration on how the commitment of leaders in an organization can actually motivate the members to produce substantially operational and markets and the higher pro fit results and this would attract more investors into such organizations (International Finance Corporation, Hawkamah 2008). Planning and setting priorities Organizations that expect to bear advantage of good governance, must seek to avail adequate measures that would ensure more attention is given to the important and urgent duties. This success is profusely possible only when an organization is able to make comparative difference between its performance and its competitor as a way of identifying the relevant governing principles. In this case, their right choice of practices is to avert any slightest action considered vise to the relationship of the organization either internally or externally with other stakeholders (International Finance Corporation, Hawkamah 2008). Implementing good board practices Board is considered as the key aspect where issues relating to corporate governance are strategized. In this case, the board plays the role of strategic guidance and oversight manag ement during implementation of corporate governance. Besides, it carries out a mandate of a trustee to the shareholders. Most basically, how the board would fulfill its responsibilities is used as a determinant by investors to assess the potentiality of an organization. If the board is given an authority to run as an independent, professional and most predominantly a vigilant body, then it would ultimately succeed to the achievements of

Personal Statement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 5

Personal Statement - Essay Example This course in essence will be a launch of my career. Apart from that the need to manage time and prioritizing issues on the field of management and other management skills made it indispensable for me to study a BA in International Hotel Management. This coupled by the competitive environment in the administrative job made it necessary for me to be armed with a BA in International Hotel Management. As a matter of fact, my focus is to be employed in a competitive position in a reputable company at a managerial level and thus the need to possess a BA in International Hotel Management. With management skills imparted in me through the study of a BA in International Hotel Management, I am expecting to have good knowledge and skills to manage my organization, my time and put my priorities in place. In addition, I am a creative and motivated individual who love to work with people and this course will probably enable me to acquire skills to do this. A BA in International Hotel Management will ensure that I am equipped with management skills including, communication, decision making and organizational management skills in terms of handling change in an organization and crisis management. Thus in essence a BA in International Hotel Management course will prepare me to do more with less in the competitive hospitality business environment. Thus this will make me more productive. It will equally make me work with or become a new leader with many business leaders and collaborate on decision making. On completion of my BA in International Hotel Management course, I will personally benefit from the development that I will have gained from the skills I will have learnt, for instance time management. These skills will be beneficial not only to me but will spread out to the organizations I will run, whether it is my business or an

Phizer Marketing and Products Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Phizer Marketing and Products - Essay Example The ultimate aim of every marketing activities of Pfizer is to maximize sales through increased prescription writing. Pfizer know that majority of the patients all over the world are purchasing medicines based on the prescriptions from their doctors. So, Pfizer’s advertising strategies give number one priority to doctors rather than patients. They know very well that once the doctor prescribes their medicine, most of the patients may purchase it without a second thought. Direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising of drugs has been legal in the USA since 1985, but only really took off in 1997 when the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) eased up on a rule obliging companies to offer a detailed list of side-effects in their infomercials (Direct-to-consumer advertising under fire, 2009) Targeted ads are possible nowadays because of the rapidly increasing popularity of internet and social media. Sending of customized emails is one of the major marketing strategy implemented by many of th e prominent organizations like Pfizer. Pfizer uses social media like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace etc to reach out individual customers. In short, Direct To Consumer advertising (DTC) is one of the prominent advertising channels in Pfizer’s’ marketing activities. ... â€Å"The New York Times reports that Pfizer is planning to lock up the market for heart treatments by bundling its new drug (toretrapib, which is still in experimental stage of development) to the company's bestselling cholesterol lowering drug, Lipitor† (Pfizer Marketing Scheme Stirs Concern_NYT, 2005). The aim of Pfizer is to have two birds for one shot. In other words, they are trying to exploit the publicity and brand value generated by its new product for selling some of their existing products. Even though the above marketing strategy has raised many criticisms, Pfizer do not bother about such criticisms and they are going ahead with the marketing strategy of forcing the heart patients to purchase more Pfizer products. â€Å"Marketing activities with health care professionals must convey full and substantiated information about the side effects and the safety profile of medicines† (Practicing ethical sales and marketing, 2011). In order to strengthen the bondage between the consumers and the company, Pfizer reveals the side effects associated with each of the drug they sell. The above strategy helped Pfizer to increase the confidence of the people over Pfizer products. It should be noted that most of the other pharmaceutical companies do not have the habit of revealing the side effects of their products in their marketing campaigns because of their concerns about the possible negative impacts. Pfizer always believe in telling the truth to the consumers which helped them to increase the relationships with its customers. Pfizer succeeded in partitioning the entire market based on the differences in the purchasing behaviors of the consumers. â€Å"Segmentation analysis is actually based on the theoretical belief that every

Software Reuse Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Software Reuse - Essay Example Software reuse has its roots it software and computer programming in the development of software libraries, which contains functions and subroutines, they are called reusable units of software. Now day’s software reuse contains the spectrum of system artifacts including these software libraries as software requirements and patterns. In software engineering, the last fifty years were a tremendous change. In 1990’s, there had been a shift from tools, processes, documentation and plans to individuals, working software, collaborations and responding to change. Organizations have been moved from typical waterfall models to spiral, evolutionary or iterative process models. Software reuse is categorized into two different types: opportunistic and systematic. Opportunistic means the unplanned and euphemistically reuse of software artifacts that are not originally designed for reuse of it in mind. But as well as concerned with systematic reuse of software, the software artifacts are designed in a sense that they are deliberately reused (Glisic and Lorenzo 2009). Benefits of Software Reuse: The concept behind software reuse is clear cut. Software reuse enables developers to create new software from existing ones using strategies, principles and techniques. A powerful concept proposed by Jones and Bonsignour (2012) has been focused on the software reusability. Software reuse results in a huge productivity, better quality and decrease in time for products. It is a mean to achieve the improvement in the overall software production. A high quality software reuse process improves productivity, quality and dependability as well as schedule, cost and performance of software. In short, software reuse development helps in reduction of risks in legacy and new system development. Estublier and Vege (2005) suggested that a really reusable component had a significant cost. Therefore, to be cost effective, a reusable component must be widely reused. Reuse backdrop encomp asses a range of reuse techniques (Sommerville 2004). Once software reuse is established, it enables the organization to accomplish more without using addition resources. Software reuse is important for business trying to gain and maintain a competitive advantage. It allows organizations to avoid duplicating past efforts. Software issues are also decreased by using these reusing techniques, and it represents a strategy to meet the challenges of rapidly changing complex environment (Pressman 2010). Lim (1998) identifies many benefits of software reuse, which are given as following: Improved software quality Short time to market Increase development productivity Consistent application functionality Reduce the risk of cost and schedule overruns Allow prototyping for validating user requirements Leveraging of technical skills and knowledge There are many benefits of software reuse, however, cannot be realized until effective implementation is not applied. Reuse of a software component, which cannot meet the requirements, cannot present the evident until verification and validation activities. Software reuse has broader benefits, but these benefits may be overlooked or go largely unrealizable without the organizational support for reuse and incentives for reuse (Larman 2012). Potential Problems with Software Reuse: Sobh (2010) stated the following facts, which affect the software reusing process: