Female Education Essay

Napoleon once said â€Å"Give me an educated mother and I will give you an educated nation. † This statement is enough to prove the importance of female education. Allah has created both man and woman equally. They are like the two sides of a coin. One is incomplete without the other. So, education cannot be the only possession of a single class or sex. Rather, it should be imparted equally to both men and women. Our religion has also made education compulsory for all. In the past, our women folk were confined within the four walls of home. Parents did not allow them to receive education and to participate in any outside work. Early marriage, religious misinterpretation and the narrowness of our outlook were mainly responsible for this. Parents thought it waste of time and money to educate their girls. They did not understand that if girl children were educated they could be as competent as male children. As our women folk constitute almost half of our total population, no real development is possible keeping them uneducated. On the other hand, an educated mother plays a very important role in making and shaping the character of her children. She knows well how to bring up her children, to educate them and to make them worthy. In domestic life, she can also extend her helping hand to her husband. So, there is no alternative to female education. It is a matter of great delight that women have started to come out of their cocoons. Being educated, they are joining a wide range of professions. They have been able to prove their abilities. So, the disadvantages of early marriage and religious misinterpretation must be removed. Our outlook about women must be changed. More schools and colleges for girls should be set up to spread female education. Recently the scenario of female education has started to change. Many socio-economic factors are responsible for this change. All possible facilities of female education have been extended. Education for girls up to degree level has been made free with a monthly stipend. This encourages them to continue their education. We should remember that only educated women can change the picture of our society. So, all of us should come forward to spread female education. The overall state of female education in Bangladesh is not yet satisfactory. In the past, women were in the boundary of their houses. They usually spent their time doing their household chores. They were deprived of education. But the situation has been changed now. Now-a-days, they are admitting into schools, colleges and universities. The rate of literacy in our country is about 60% whereas female literacy is about 40%. Female education is necessary for getting an educated nation. Because, an educated mother can give an educated nation. There are many advantages of female education. A child will never remain illiterate if his/her mother is educated. An educated woman can play various roles in the family. She can impart himself in different business and jobs. As a result, she can contribute to the family income. However, government should do something more to educate the female. â€Å"No need girl’s education, they are born only for taking care of their families†- this idea was stereotype in the early past of Bangladesh. The birth of a boy child was a blessing for the parents and a girl child was like a curse. It is a surprising matter that a girl child also comes like a boy child from mother’s womb and father’s blood but still that child is unexpected to her parents. In reality, a father and mother can never hate their children. Actually, the society made the rule to neglect the girl children. As Bangladesh is considers as a Muslim country, most of its population are Muslim. The Bangladeshi people thought that their religion had ordered them to keep their women and female children inside the house and keep them in safe. As a result, the parents always wanted a male child to earn for the family and protect their old age. From a theological research, it has found that the beliefs which were followed by our ancestors were based on wrong concepts. The holy books actually suggested keeping women in safe, not to confine them into four walls where they do not have any liberty. These books also suggested that a woman can even participate in the warfare if she is able to protect herself. Very slowly but the people started to change their mentality when they were becoming educated and started realizing that it was useless to achieve success without women as a mother is the first teacher of a child. If a mother is illiterate there is much possibility that the child will be uneducated. To cure this problem, Begum Rokeya, the pioneer of giving the light of education to the Muslim Bengali girls. This social movement of educating girls was very slow and at that time people were against of this blessed work. She kept patience and opened a girls’ school. She made people to understand about the benefit of the girl’s education by giving the religious points. Though it took time to convince people, it worked. People understood the necessity of the girls’ education and started sending their daughters into the school. This idea was so effective because a nation can have more achievements if the entire nation works together for success, not the half of the nation. The government also realized that this is an innovative idea and so the†¦ It is the height of selfishness for men, who fully appreciate in their own case the great advantage of a good education, to deny these advantages to women. There is no valid argument by which the exclusion of the female sex from the privilege of education can be defended. It is argued that women have their domestic duties to perform and that, if they were educated, they would bury themselves in their books and have little time for atten ding to the management of their households. Of course, it is possible for women as it is for men to neglect work in order to spare more time for reading sensational novels. But women are no more liable to this temptation than men and most women would be able to do their household work the entire better for being able to refresh their minds in the intervals of leisure with a little reading. Nay, education would even help them in the performance of the narrowest sphere of womanly duty. For education involves knowledge of the means by which health may be preserved and enable a mother to consult such modern books as will tell her how to rear up her children into healthy men and women and skillfully nurse them and her husband, when disease attacks her household. Without education she will not be averse to listen, with fatal results, to the advice of superstitious quacks that pretend to work wonder by charms and magic. But, according to higher conception of women’s sphere, women ought to be something more than a household drudge. She ought to be able not merely to nurse her husband in sickness but also to be his companion in health. For this part of her wifely duty, education is necessary, for there cannot be congenial companionship between an educated husband and an uneducated wife who can converse with her husband on no higher subject than cookery and servant’s wages. Also, one of a mother’s highest duties is the education of her children at the time when their mind is not amenable to instruction. A child’s whole future life, to a large extent, depends on the teaching it receives in early childhood and it is needless to say that this first foundation of education cannot be well laid by an ignorant mother. On all these grounds female education is a vital necessity. Gender inequality in education is extreme. Girls are less likely to access school, to remain in school or to achieve in education. Education helps men and women claim their rights and realise their potential in the economic, political and social arenas. It is also the single most powerful way to lift people out of poverty. Education plays a particularly important role as a foundation for girls’ development towards adult life. It should be an intrinsic part of any strategy to address the gender-based discrimination against women and girls that remains prevalent in many societies. The following links will further explain the necessity of girls’/women’s education. Education is a right Cultural changes Better health and awareness Poverty reduction Education is a right Everybody has the right to education, which has been recognised since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948. The right to free and compulsory primary education, without discrimination and of good quality, has been reaffirmed in all major international human rights conventions. Many of these same instruments encourage, but do not guarantee, post-primary education. These rights have been further elaborated to address issues like quality and equity, moving forward the issue of what the right to education means, and exploring how it can be achieved. As a minimum: states must ensure that basic education is available, accessible, acceptable and adaptable for all. (4A scheme) The right of girls to education is one of the most critical of all rights – because education plays an important role in enabling girls and women to secure other rights. Cultural changes Cultural and traditional values stand between girls and their prospects for education. The achievement of girls’ right to education can address some of societies’ deeply rooted inequalities, which condemn millions of girls to a life without quality education – and, therefore, also all too often to a life of missed opportunities. Improving educational opportunities for girls and women helps them to develop skills that allow them to make decisions and influence community change in key areas. One reason for denying girls and women their right to an education is rarely articulated by those in charge: that is their fear of the power that girls will have through education. There is still some resistance to the idea that girls and women can be trusted with education. Education is also seen in some societies as a fear of change and now with globalization, the fear becomes even greater- fear to lose the cultural identity, fear of moving towards the unknown or the unwanted, fear of dissolving in the many others. Better health Basic education provides girls and women with an understanding of basic health, nutrition and family planning, giving them choices and the power to decide over their own lives and bodies. Women’s education leads directly to better reproductive health, improved family health, economic growth, for the family and for society, as well as lower rates of child mortality and malnutrition. It is also key in the fight against the spread of HIV & AIDS. Poverty reduction Educating girls and women is an important step in overcoming poverty. Inequality and poverty are not inevitable. â€Å"The focus on poverty reduction enables the right to education to be a powerful tool in making a change in the lives of girls and women. Poverty has been universally affirmed as a key obstacle to the enjoyment of human rights, and it has a visible gender profile. The main reason for this is the fact that poverty results from violations of human rights, including the right to education, which disproportionately affect girls and women. Various grounds of discrimination combine, trapping girls in a vicious downward circle of denied rights. Denial of the right to education leads to exclusion from the labour market and marginalisation into the informal sector or unpaid work. This perpetuates and increases women’s poverty. †

Devine Love vs Human Love Essay

End of the Affair both distinguish between divine love and human love. A common thread that runs throughout is the inconsistencies that are associated with human love and the unconditional nature of divine love. Both Greene and Lewis use familial, platonic and erotic love to illustrate the distinction between divine love and human love with the result that the reader appreciates that human love is superficial given for the wrong reasons while divine love is authentic love given for all the right reasons. Moreover, both Greene and Lewis use their protagonists to demonstrate that while human love is characterized by negative emotions such as jealousy and selfishness, divine love is kind and unselfish. This paper focuses on the varieties of love featured in both books and demonstrates how modernity tends to prioritize human love over divine love with a view to rationalizing how and why romantic, familial and erotic love, all forms of human love are displaced in both novels. In each of the novels, the inescapable message is that erotic love is fragile and recklessly teeters on the outer fringes of hate. C. S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold As in Greene’s The End of the Affair Lewis’s Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold Human love is unveiled for all its inherent flaws. Orual, the central figure in Lewis’s Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold recounts her relationship with her sister Psyche. Through Orual Lewis permits his reader to follow the progression of that relationship laying bare the weaknesses associated with affectionate love that Orual has for her sister Psyche and how that love develops into possessive love. Exemplifying the frailties of human love, particularly familial love, Lewis also demonstrates how human love can be conditional and selfish by exposing the fragile relationship between Orual and her father. Perhaps more importantly, Lewis uses these unique familial relationships to demonstrate how selfish human love can transform into hate. In summary Till We Have Faces is a re-telling of the Greek mythical story of Cupid/Eros and Psyche. In Lewis’s re-telling the story is reconstructed through the eyes of Orual who is represented as unattractive and jealous and uniquely disgruntled by the Gods’ mistreatment of her. Psyche, the beautiful sister is the object to Orual’s affections. In this re-telling Lewis deliberately complicates familial love in that Orual’s love for her sister is obsessive. On the other side of the spectrum, Redival’s love for Orual is spurious and the love for Psyche by King Trom is self-deceptive. Fox’s love for Orual and Psyche is also transient. Lewis also ventures into sexual/erotic love which is multifaceted in Till We Have Faces. Orual’s love for Bardia is unrequited, Ansit’s love for Bardia is frustrating and of course there is the superficial infatuation of men for Orual in her veiled condition. Lewis also takes pains to demonstrate that self-love is destructive in presenting duality in Orual who loves and hates herself all at once. This duality is selfish and damaging at the same time. Above all however, the emphasis is on divine love and implicit in this re-telling is a transition from Greek Philosophical times to modern Christianity. (Hooper, 1996, 250) Father Peter Milward writes of Till We Have Faces: â€Å"The main themes are, (1) Natural affection, if left to mere nature, easily becomes a special kind of hatred, (2) God is, to our natural affections, the ultimate object of jealousy. † (Hooper, 1996, 250) Psyche as reconstructed by Lewis has a natural predisposition for affection for divinity whereas Psyche’s love for divinity coincides with Orual’s love for humankind particularly her love for Psyche. While Psyche’s love for the gods are first and foremost in her heart, Orual’s love for Psyche comes first and each sister regards her love as the natural love. For Orual Psyche represents â€Å"the beginning of my [Orual’s] joys. † (Lewis, 20) On the other hand, Psyche derives her greatest at a time just before she is sacrificed to Cupid as it is a means of bringing her closer tot he gods. (Lewis, 74) Orual’s love for Psyche however is aligned to hatred and becomes a means by which Lewis demonstrates the superficial nature of human love whether familial or romantic in nature. Orual’s so-called love and affection for her sister fluctuates from love to hate in a manner which can only leave the impression that the love is fickly to begin with and not based on sound principles or values. For instance the night before Psyche is sacrificed Orual reveals that her sister has â€Å"made me, in a way, angry. † (Lewis, 71) Moreover the following day, Orual dreams her sister â€Å"was my [Orual’s] greatest enemy. † (Lewis, 71) The remainder of the first part of Till We Have Faces is characterized by this king of fluctuations of Orual’s affections for her sister. The inconsistencies are not lost on Psyche who observes: â€Å"I am not sure whether I like your kind [of love] better than hatred. † (Lewis, 165) Superimposed in this aspect of human love as illustrated through Lewis’s Orual is the damaging elements of human love whether romantic or familial. Orual’s love for her sister is characterized by two fatal flaws. First she loves her sister in such a way that she easily allows it to fall into hatred. Secondly, Orual permits her hatred to rebound to the gods. The love-hate scenario from Orual to Psyche is connected to the gods to the extent that Orual permits her love for Psyche to become possessive. That possessive love turns to a dangerous jealousy which is borne out of the presumption that Psyche loves the gods to the exclusion of Orual who in turn holds the gods accountable for taking Psyche’s love from her. Orual’s jealousy is so strong that she’d rather the gods had killed her sister than made her immortal. She laments: â€Å"We’d rather they were ours and dead than yours and made immortal. † (Lewis, 291) Psyche’s love for the gods is interpreted by Orual as a theft by the gods. To her way of thinking the gods took Psyche’s love from her and she says as much, â€Å"Psyche was mine and no one else had any right to her. †(Lewis, 291-292) Lewis intent with respect to Orual’s reaction to Psyche and her affection for the gods were specifically delineated in a letter he sent to Katerine Farrer. Lewis explains in the letter that Orual’s jealousy and attitude toward her sister’s relationship with the God was intended to convey the typical reaction of family members when a relative gives his life to Christianity. Lewis explained in the letter that the reaction of family members is typified by Orual’s when: â€Å"someone becomes a Christian, or in a family nominally Christian already, does something like become a missionary or enter a religious order. The others suffer a sense of outrage. What they love is being taken away from them. † (Hooper, 249) In other words Orual’s angst with the gods finds its place in the kind of jealousy that one family member experiences when it appears to them that a loved one religion replaces them. In much the same way Orual’s bitterness stems from a jealousy which is founded on love. The self-destructive and selfish nature of human love is also succinctly illustrated through Orual. In Lewis’s characterization of Orual she increasingly subscribes to the notion that if she can’t have her sister then she will not permit anyone else have her. Orual convinces Psyche to look upon her lover, despite his warning to the contrary. In her way of thinking Orual perceives that she is saving Psyche and to prove her intention she cuts her arm. The danger of Orual’s love and the dangerous manner in which her love for her sister influences her thinking and perception are revealed in the following excerpt from Till We Have Faces: â€Å"How could she hate me, when my arm throbbed and burned with the wound I had given it for her love? † (Lewis, 169) Ironically, the gods whose love Orual condemns closely mirrors Orual’s idea of love which is self-serving and consuming. It is not until the novel nears its conclusion that Orual comes to the realization that how love was commandeered by avarice and self-satisfaction. In this way Lewis is able to expose the superficial nature of human love. This is finally accomplished with Orual coming to terms with and accepting that her desire to have Psyche, the Fox and Bardia all to herself was entirely wrong. Lewis uses Ansit to voice the meaning of real or divine love by having him provide a brief commentary on Orual’s love. Ansit, referring to Orual’s pursuit of Bardia notes that: â€Å"He was to live the life he though best and fittest for a great man—not that which would most pleasure me. † (Lewis, 264)

How are gender relationships depicted in Chaucers “Wife of Bath”?

The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale is one of the twenty-four stories which make up The Canterbury Tales written by Geoffrey Chaucer towards the end of the 14th century. The premise for The Tales is that of a group of pilgrims each telling stories in order to win the prize of a free meal, the primary narrator is a naà ¯ve pilgrim who is not described. The Canterbury Tales is written in Middle English, which bears a close visual resemblance to the English written and spoken today. The Tales were unfinished as Chaucer died before their completion and the order of the stories has been disputed due to the fragmented nature of his work. This essay will be looking at gender relationships in The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale and in medieval Literature as a whole. Chaucer’s Wife of Bath is a middle-aged woman from the west country, who strides into The Canterbury Tales on a large horse with her spurs jangling and riding in the fashion of a man rather than the side saddle that was typical of women, ready to assert herself in the company of pilgrims made almost entirely of men. Rich and elaborate in design, the Wife’s clothes reek of extravagance, her stockings â€Å"weren of fyn scarlet reede† and â€Å"on hir feet a paire of spores sharpe† show how wealthy she has become from her conquests of men. In the General Prologue where each of the characters is described in terms of their profession she is clearly a ‘professional wife’ who has travelled more than almost all of the other pilgrims making her a bold, adventurous and sociable character. Men were the ones who travelled to distant lands in search of adventure, this challenges the accepted ideas about gender of the time. This portrait of a woman is very peculiar for a piece of medieval literature, men tend to have the starring role and women are usually featured as beautiful ladies in distress or as villainous old hags. The Wife of Bath is neither a helpless damsel in distress nor a typical old crone. She is the first of her kind in English literature. The Wife of Bath’s Prologue is the life story of Alison who has married five times, this in itself is unusual for a woman in medieval literature as it is usually the rogue male who has multiple lovers. Chaucer certainly informs us of Alison’s backstory to a higher degree than he does the other pilgrims. There are many pieces of literature which condemn women, from the highest class to the lowest, Chaucer does not ignore this with his characterisation of the Wife but rather embraces it to make her who she is. The Wife is noisy and bossy, she torments her husbands and has a large enough sexual appetite to compete with the most sexual of men. But Chaucer has also made her capable of love, vulnerable, optimistic and argumentative against medieval anti-woman ideas. It is not clear whether Chaucer wants us to sympathise with the Wife and see her as the first feminist and defender of women’s rights or if we are to view her as an elaborate joke of what would happen if a women were to ever have as much freedom as a man. The Wife of Bath’s Prologue is different from any literature which had been encountered, as is her Tale. The male lead is not a typical heroic knight but a rapist, the main female role is an ugly old woman and the force of good in the story is a court full of powerful women. All the standard ideas of gender relationships are both turned on their heads and brought into sharp focus. The Wife conforms to a number of anti-female stereotypes of the medieval period, stereotypes which were created by men for the purpose of a patriarchal society. She claims that she has a great sexual appetite whilst also boasting that she uses sex to gain wealth. The Wife also tells of how she controls her husbands through the use of her body, a fear which is common of villainous females in medieval literature and which males dread. The Wife points out that there are many husbands and wives in the Bible. Some of the greatest men in the Old Testament were not only married but had multiple wives. â€Å"Lo, heere the wise kyng, daun Salomon; I trowe he hadde wyves mo than oon. As wolde God it leveful were unto me To be refresshed half so ofte as he!† (35-38) This is a double standard in that these men have multiple lovers but that women apparently can’t. By calling King Solomon â€Å"wise† she is conveying that wise men have multiple marriages. The Wife successfully gives examples from the Bible of people whose marriages were blessed by God despite the polygamous nature of these marriages. The Pardoner who is shocked by the Wife’s revelations so far interrupts her story, he says that he was about to marry but is now not so sure that it is a good idea. â€Å"Now, dame,† quod he, â€Å"by God and by Seint John!†¦ I was aboute to wedde a wyf; allas!†¦ What sholde I bye it on my flessh so deere? Yet hadde I levere wedde no wyf to-yeere!† (164-168) The Wife then tells a short story about a medieval pardoner who worked for the Church collecting donations from those sorry for their sins and anxious to find forgiveness. His manhood is called into question throughout the canterbury tales and his talk of taking a wife is probably an empty boast. This is a continuation of Wife of Bath’s theme of male impotence, she regularly taunts her celibate male adversaries in this way throughout the prologue. It was unheard of for a woman to speak this way about such matters, even a man would think before directly insulting men of the Church. The first three husbands the Wife had were rich old men who were financially secure. The Wife treated each of these husbands badly and in a very dominating way. By being argumentative and eager to start trouble she ensured that they would be careful to please her. â€Å"What sholde I taken keep hem for to plese, But it were for my profit and myn ese?† (213-14) Here the Wife of Bath uses a rhetorical question, it is clear from the tone that she doesn’t think she needs to care about her husbands. The misogynists classed all women together as bad and all wives as nothing but trouble. Chaucer both confirms this stereotype here with the way the Wife treated her first three husbands but also turns it around so that the woman is in control for once and the men are indistinguishable without even a single name between them. Chaucer makes us pity the husbands but it also shows us how unfairly women are usually treated. Chaucer outlines the Wife’s general techniques on how she handles Marital trouble which are lying, cheating and accusing the opposite gender before they accuse you. Lying and cheating were the things that medieval literature always accused the villainous women in a story of doing. The Wife is therefore acting in a very stereotypically manipulative way, and comes very close to becoming the old villainous hag which was a staple of medieval literature. Chaucer makes it clear that the Wife is a complex character and that our response to her as readers should be one of uncertainty. He makes sure we see the good aswell as the bad. The Wife of Bath goes on to describe the lies she would use to keep her first three husbands in line. She’d accuse them of lecherous behaviour and of chasing after the neighbours or servants and then unfairly accusing her about her relationship with her ‘friend’. She uses powerful but offensive imagery towards woman in order to get her point across. â€Å"For as a spanyel she wol on hym lepe,†¦ But folk of wyves maken noon assay, Til they be wedded — olde dotard shrewe! And thanne, seistow, we wol oure vices shewe.† (267-292) The Wife of Bath uses simile’s to compare women first of all to animals, which should be tried by men before they are bought. They are then reduced even further being compared to ordinary objects such as basins, washbowls, spoons and stools. The men did not say these things and this paints the Wife of Bath in a very negative light for her deceit but at the same time other men during her period are guilty of thinking such things. The Wife boasts about how she lied to her husbands about what they said whilst drunk in order to make them feel guilty. This extract is some of the Wife’s most blatant deceit and if all women were to be like this in medieval times it would be surprising if men and women ever managed to live together at all. â€Å"Thou liknest eek wommenes love to helle, To bareyne lond, ther water may nat dwelle. Thou liknest it also to wilde fyr;† (371-372) The Wife doesn’t see the wickedness of her ways as is obvious when she states â€Å"Yet tikled I his herte, for that he Wende that I hadde of hym so greet chiertee!† The choice of verb is an interesting one because it is much lighter than the passage as a whole. The Wife claims that either her or her husband must give in if they are to live in peace, and she says â€Å"And sith a man is moore resonable† he should be the one to give in more easily. She then slyly puts in a comment about how she is his alone, implying that this could easily change at any moment. She is exploiting male and female stereotypes here, using a man’s image of themselves as reasonable and superior against them. She is manipulating by saying that if women are so stupid and emotional, clever men should just let them have their way in order for there to be peace. The Wife of Bath’s youth may have now passed her by but she has no regrets. Her fourth husband however was not a very happy memory for her. She even goes on to tell us about his unfaithfulness â€Å"This is to seyn, he hadde a paramour†. Her dominance and power over her first three husbands now gives way to the more melancholy story of her next husband. Old women in medieval literature quite often show bitterness and loathing when they remember their youth but the Wife has no regrets. Her optimism and her grace in the way that she accepts the passing of her youth shows a softer and more vulnerable side to this manipulative and domineering woman. With the death of her fourth husband The Wife then falls in love with a man named Jankyn who was half her age. Within a month she had married him and as an act of love she signed over all her property to him. However, Jankyn was typical of a medieval gender role. He was a dominant man who won’t be told what to do by a woman. He demands her to stop going on pilgrimages, stop gossiping and to generally stop all the mischievous behaviour from her past. He beats her for tearing pages out of a book and tells her of husbands who left their wives because the wives would not do as they were told. â€Å"And me of olde Romayn geestes teche; How he Symplicius Gallus lefte his wyf, And hire forsook for terme of al his lyf† (642-644) The Wife now has to be on the receiving end of the abuse that she has up until then caused, she is the one being dominated and controlled. She has previously been at a distance from the anti-women literature of the period, even used it to her advantage against her past husbands. Now she must endure the stereotypically male dominated household she has avoided for so long. The reason the Wife of Bath is deaf is because she was struck by Jankyn for tearing out a few pages from his favourite book. It consisted of stories by the best known authors of the middle ages which condemned women. â€Å"For trusteth wel, it is an impossible That any clerk wol speke good of wyves,† (688-689) She hated this book as Jankyn used it to cause her a great deal of grief, she stated that these men don’t understand women yet they are the ones writing these stories. What’s quite interesting is that all the literature she used to control her past husbands was now coming at her in a very real sense. The Wife of Bath asks the question â€Å"Who peyntede the leon, tel me who?† which points out that medieval women existed in a world where everything including art, religion, work, family life and literature was controlled by men. Chaucer pointing this out is well ahead of his time in terms of social gender commentary. The Wife’s ripping of the book could be seen as a symbolic gesture. The Wife used this literature against her past husbands, she had it used against her by her fifth husband. The tearing of the book is symbolic of the Wife moving away from medieval stereotypes. After finally finishing the prologue to her story the Wife of Bath moves onto her Tale. The story opens with the rape of a young maiden, the rape is described very casually as though it is somehow entirely natural that a woman is violently attacked this way. â€Å"He saugh a mayde walkynge hym biforn, Of which mayde anon, maugree hir heed, By verray force, he rafte hire maydenhed;† (886-888) The word ‘raft’ means he took her ‘maydenhead’ which is not a very violent verb but it still has powerful imagery because of how casual a word it is. This can be seen as an extreme example of the way in which women are regarded as mere property. The knight’s offence was against a woman so it is therefore ironic that women should step in to save his life. They don’t do this out of compassion or mercy though, he is to be placed in a powerless position in which the fate of his body is in the hands of another, similar to when a woman is raped. After a year of searching for the answer to the question of what women want the knight rides back to the court in despair, this is when he encounters an extremely ugly old woman who agrees to give him the answer to his question if he agrees to do something for her. After answering with â€Å"†Wommen desiren to have sovereynetee† the old hag asks the knight to marry her. Because our knight did not know what the condition would be he is placed in a far more vulnerable position. He is completely under the old woman’s dominance, a reversal of the normal male female relationship. The â€Å"lusty bacheler† from the start of the story now â€Å"hidde hym as an owle†, no longer dominant and in control or a stereotype of medieval man. The old woman then gives the knight an ultimatum, she can either be beautiful and unfaithful or faithful and ugly. The knight considers for a moment but decides in the end to let her make the decision which results in her being both beautiful and faithful. With the mastery handed over to the old lady, there is a switching of gender roles with the knight also getting what he wants. The knight is no longer the misogynist monster he was at the start of The Wife of Bath’s Tale. It could be argued that the Wife of Bath is giving a voice to the excluded women of medieval society. Through her voice we hear and see all the devaluation and oppression which is always silent in medieval literature due to the authors being almost entirely male. The Wife could also be interpreted as a representation of stereotypical medieval fear by men about women as cruel, emotional and sexually deviant. It is not clear in what way Chaucer meant for her to be conveyed, it is clear however that he wanted her to become a complicated character with many different layers whose gender was a driving force for the story.

Animal Farm 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Animal Farm 2 - Essay Example Animalism is used to represent other characters such as Old Major to represent Vladimir Lenin, while Napoleon represents Stalin and dogs act as his police force. The horse named Boxer represents the working class of the Russian society. The plot represents the tragedy of the revolution that ended up in failure. The animalistic utopia revolves around this violent revolution that the animals carry out. What sets this novel apart is intelligence in telling the story of revolution from inception to conclusion through respecting the limitations that humans and animals face. The term animalism is reminiscent of communism. The formation of a complete system/pattern and the following revolution closely represents the real pattern. Squealer, Napoleon and Snowball transform old Major’s ideas into reality. Later squealer and Napoleon start acting like humans as they drink alcohol, sleep in beds and start trading. All of these activities were originally prohibited in the seven Commandments. Squealer modifies the seven Commandments so that such activities can find their ‘legitimate’ place, similar to what happened during the Russian Revolution. A direct reference exists to the Soviet government’s plan of revising history so they can plant those seeds of thoughts that they deem fit. The formation and reference of seven Commandments directly enacts the communist approach. For instance the seven commandments hold that anything that walks on two legs is a foe. On the contrary a creature that walks on four legs or flaps its wings is part of the community. The seven Commandments also prohibit certain traits that separate them from humans. No animal is allowed to wear clothes, sleep in a bed or consume alcohol. Any indulgence in such activities would compromise the distinctive boundaries. The sixth and seventh commandments are there to support the social structure

Contract Cost and Documentation for the Navy Assignment

Contract Cost and Documentation for the Navy - Assignment Example Contract cost includes the strategies for controlling various kinds of cost associated with the contracts or agreements of the company. The strategies of contract cost help to provide different kinds of products to the Navy, so that the customers can justify the billing procedures and other costs related to the services of Lester Myers Inc. The documentation process helps the company to check the working process including the paper works with the aim of ascertaining accuracy of billings. The documentation process is adopted in order to minimize the effects and maintain the quality of services or products (Urizar, 2013). In the negotiation process, Lester Myers Inc. provides a low price facility to the Navy. It helps Navy to purchase the products or services from Lester Myers Inc. in bulk quantities, which increases the sales percentage of Lester Myers Inc. The company should implement an efficient payment facility to retain Navy’s contract as well as trust. If the payment facilities do not provide benefits to the Navy, then disagreement will be witnessed in the contract, which will not be efficient for the business relations. In addition, the company should focuses on the ways by which it can control as well as increase the working capital and cash flow within the same. Lester Myers Inc. provides credit facilities for the Navy, so that the customers get the chance to pay the amount over time. Credit facilities include partial payment facilities reducing the stress of bulk payment, which could be riskier for the Navy (Scheer, 2013). The company should provide monthly or periodically installment payment facilities, which in turn helps the Navy to feel free from the payment burden and pay periodically or monthly. The company can provide multi channels for the payment such as online facilities or other credit and/or debit card facilities to make payment process easier for the Navy. The

The Experiment on the Coastal Engineering to Analyse the Wave Lab Report

The Experiment on the Coastal Engineering to Analyse the Wave Behaviour and Linear Theory - Lab Report Example The thickness is always twice the diameter of the concrete armor unit for the tetrapod layers Concrete. 20 The experiment on coastal engineering was carried out in the hydraulics laboratory for approximately two hours. This experiment consisted of two parts. Part one was linear wave theory and part two was breakwater design. The venue of the experiment was Sopwith building Waves are created when the wind blows on top of the sea and the bottom layer receives frictional drag from the surface of the sea which exerts frictional drag to the next wind layer above it. This process continues in all the wind layers. The coastal zone is very important to the community around it. For the community to survive, the engineers play a big role in protecting this zone against flooding, erosion, and destruction of property by the ocean waves and tides. The laboratory work is important in that to avoid all these natural disasters. The measurements lead to commendation on how the waves acted on the coast and how they were reflected on the vertical wall. The waves that are reflected on the vertical surface had no horizontal movement and are referred to as standing waves. A rubble mound breakwater was created to make the wave to move over its Smaller waves with period 1.0s, were created to come to the conclusion about how they affect the model structure. This observation ended when the rubble mound breakwater finally failed. The wave height of a surface wave is the difference between the elevations of a crest (the highest point of the wave) and a neighboring trough (the lowest point of the wave) as it is shown at the figure below. (Dr. Alan Dykes, 2011).  

Do not need a title Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Do not need a title - Assignment Example In every society, men of this [aristocratic] class will command a superior degree of respect; and if the government is so constituted as to admit but few to exercise the powers of it, it will, according to the natural course of things, be in their hands. Men in the middling class, who are qualified as representatives, will not be so anxious to be chosen as those of the first. When the number is so small, the office will be highly elevated and distinguished; the style in which the members live will probably be high; circumstances of this kind will render the place of a representative not a desirable one to sensible, substantial men, who have been used to walk in the plain and frugal paths of life†¦. A substantial yeoman, of sense and discernment, will hardly ever be chosen. From these remarks, it appears that the government will fall into the hands of the few and the great. This will be a government of oppression†¦.The great consider themselves above the common people, entitled to more respect, do not associate with them; they fancy themselves to have a right of preeminence in every thing. It has been farther, by the gentlemen in opposition [Antifederalists], observed, that a large representation is necessary to understand the interests of the people. This principle is by no means true in the extent to which the gentleman seems to carry it. I would ask, why may not a man understand the interests of thirty [thousand] as well as of twenty? It is a harsh doctrine, that men grow wicked in proportion as they improve and enlighten their minds. Experience has by no means justified us in the supposition, that there is more virtue in one class of men than in another. Look through the rich and the poor of the community; the learned and the ignorant. Where does virtue predominate? The difference indeed consists, not in the quantity but kind of vices, which are incident to the various classes; and here the advantage of character belongs to the

Business enterprise proposition Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Business enterprise proposition - Essay Example The target customers of the business are young individuals who lie within the age group of 17 to 35 years who are interested in healthy living and falls in middle and upper middle class. The shop will be facing direct competition from Bodychef and indirect competition from Marks and Spencer, Sainsbury and Waitrose. The business requires an initial investment of ?60,000. So finance required by the organization is ?90,000. The company has its competitive advantage as portioning, pricing and delivery. 2. Vision, aims and objectives Vision The business plan looks towards starting a private limited company with the name â€Å"Body and Balance† and establish itself as one of the leading companies in the healthy food industry. A private limited company signifies an organization who can sell their shares privately within a group of friends or family. Private limited company has the word â€Å"Limited† in their name (Johnson and Aldhamland, n.d.; Anon., 2008). The main advantage s that the private limited company enjoys are as follows: They can raise large amount of capital. Liability is limited. Ownership is transferable. They have the flexibility to decide on the proportion of dividends and salary to be paid as compared to the sole traders whose basic accounts are subjected to tax at fixed rate. On the other hand, the private limited companies are also seen to suffer certain disadvantages like they take more time and cost to set up. At the same time the accounts are also complicated (Shakespeare, 2011). Reason for doing this business The main reason for opening a shop in this particular sector is because research has proved that as time is passing more and more people are becoming health conscious and they are getting inclined towards healthy food. Thus this business looks for tapping a hyper growth experienced by the health food industry. Aim The business aims towards attaining 5% market share in one year. Here market share is defined as the share of the market occupied by ‘Body and Balance’ out of the total potential market. The total potential is indicated as the sum total of the annual sales of all the companies operating in the market including the firm itself and the potential customers who have not made the purchase yet (Luther, 2001). Objectives The business will be starting with a small shop that will be strategically located near the local gyms in the Oxford Street area. The future plans of the business have been shown below: 1-5 years: Increase the number of branches to five. 5-10 years: Expanding the business by entering into other markets and developing new products. 10-15 years: Opening new branch at New York. 3. Business description, market environment and competitive advantage Business Description The company ‘Body and Balance’ provides healthy food to their customers that will last for 1 to 3 days. The company will also provide planning services free of cost. They have their own nutritionis t to provide innovative and up-to-date meal plan to the customers. On the requirement of the customers the company also provides supplements like nutrition and vitamins. Special orders can be taken as per the flavour of the customers. Market Environment The business will be operating in the health food market, which in UK is showing a growth of ?2 billion annually (Durisin, 2013). The company will be opening its shop in the close vicinity of the gyms. So they are mainly aiming

Research critique Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Research critique - Essay Example Likewise, the paper did not explicitly state the problem, but with clear defined focus and a well argued urgency and necessity for the study, apparently, the problem centers on the effectiveness of mutual goal setting (MGS) and supportive-educative (SE) nursing interventions in improving the mental health (MH) and quality of life (QOL) of individuals with heart failure (HF) – a very relevant study specifically for nursing, since among health workers, nurses are tasked to monitor health conditions of patients. With the study addressing a clinical problem that is experimental in nature, quantitative approach has been appropriate. The stated hypotheses: â€Å"That by (1) educating HF patients about their disease and supporting them in self-care management behaviors and (2) enhancing their sense of control through MGS, they will experience significant improvements in their MH and QOL† (Scott, Setter-Kline, & Britton, 2004, p. 249) have clearly specified the key variables an d the study population as consistently illustrated in the conceptual framework and as supported by a brief yet cohesive review of literature both in theories and related studies. Observably, the literature review, which references are good combination of old(1990-1998) and current (1999-2004) books (3-1), journals (4-7), and government materials (3-1), although brief has provided sufficient theoretical: â€Å"†¦ worry, depression, and loss of control may contribute to feelings of powerlessness among individuals receiving treatment for advance HF† (Scott, 2000, cited in Ibid, p. 249), and practical: â€Å"the use of SE nursing intervention improved self-care behaviors and decreased symptom frequency and distress, yet only limited improvements in QOL were identified† (Jaarsma et al., 2000, cited in Ibid), support to the study. However, studies cited here were not critiqued maybe due to the

Movie Exorcist Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Movie Exorcist - Essay Example Telling the story of exorcising devil that controls the twelve-year-old girl by the name Rigan, he includes cynical and excessively naturalistic shots. On the other hand, it really impressed the audience, influenced it more strongly, making really feel the trouble of events. The work on the movie was serious and complicated. It took 224 days instead of planned 85 to film the best-seller, and in the course of work, quite a strange event happened when nine people of the group, including two actors, died. However, the end result surpassed all the expectations. Many people consider this movie to be the most interesting in the genre of horror. However, if to hear this story not from the writer, but from the mother of the girl controlled by the devil, the story would be even more frightful because the mother in the movie seemed shocked and very afraid because of the state of her daughter. She thinks not about the devil and its origin.

Critical Discussion on Watson’s and Skinner’s Versions of Behaviourism Essay Example for Free

Critical Discussion on Watson’s and Skinner’s Versions of Behaviourism Essay Behaviourism concept emerged at a period when the societal disarticulation as a result of speedy industrialization of American society needed novel approaches of social organization. This was to act as a replacement to Victorian mores of minute-town rural lifestyle (Wightman Kloppenberg 1995, p. 68). At this time, positivists like Walter Lippmann invited psychologists to assist devise approaches, and the lately recognized science of psychology, enthusiastic to signify its position as an autonomous discipline, responded by assertively endorsing itself in terms of societal utility (Wightman Kloppenberg 1995, p. 68). That said, behaviourism premise emanated from the work of an American psychologist John B. Watson. He did assert that psychology as a discipline was never concerned with human mind or consciousness, but rather concerned with just behaviour. This way, Watson claimed that humans could be examined, studied or evaluated impartially just like apes and rats (Cohen 1987, p. 71). Behaviourism according to Watson’s version was a stab to shun the complexities of trying to study human consciousness by limiting scientific attention to evident, overt or blatant behaviour. This version was coupled with a pivotal ambition to put in place much more thorough ways or methods to experimental research as well as report writing. Thus, the key task of psychology was none other than recognition of laws governing the link between behavioural responses and environmental stimuli, and psychology was cast as an attachment to physiology (Richards 2009, p. 35). In this way, Watson believed that psychology would provide knowledge that could be utilized to the prediction as well as control of behaviour. Therefore, his version of classical behaviourism did possess several distinct characteristics, such as: †¢ It was tremendously environmentalist †¢ Its practical vocabulary was mainly limited to not many non-mentalistic terms †¢ Its explanations were exceedingly reductionist, and †¢ The version was majorly concerned with investigational methodology (Richards 2009, p. 35). In the early 1920s, Watson assimilated the concepts of Ivan Pavlov, a Russian psychologist and included Pavlov’s ideas of reinforcement and conditioning as key theoretical notions to his classical behaviourism version. Pavlov had done a number of studies on the animal’s responses to environmental conditioning. In his best triumphant experiment, he did ring a bell as he took a number of meals to some dogs. In doing so, each and every time dogs did hear the bell ringing they knew pretty well that a meal was ready, and would start salivating (DeMar 1989, p. 1). On one instance, Pavlov did ring the bell devoid of taking food, but the dogs continued salivating since they had been habituated, conditioned or trained to salivate each time they hear a bell ringing. Watson asserted in his behaviourism version that humans responded to environmental stimuli just in the similar way (DeMar 1989, p. 1). However, Watson’s classical behaviourism was regarded too crude, he himself did refrain from academia after a divorce scandal. In his wake, several neo-behaviourists, including B. F. Skinner, Clark L. Hull and Ernest R. Hilgard took over the doctrine in an array of directions. On a different perspective, the well-known architect of a radical or less mechanistic behaviourism version was B. F. Skinner, whose premises of operant conditioning did attest potent enough to be utilized in a number of settings (Wightman Kloppenberg 1995, p. 68). At times grounded in stylish mathematical learning theories, but much more frequently established on instinctive rules of thumb, behavioural techniques were used in psychotherapy, medicine, education, advertising, business and management of mental hospitals and prisons. Given its predictable comparing of lower animals to humans, together with its firm permeation into such conventionally humanist territories as the curative education and art, it’s doubtless that Skinner’s version of radical behaviourism has long provoked controversy (Wightman Kloppenberg 1995, p. 68). What’s more, today’s behaviourism is associated with B. F. Skinner, who attained his reputation as a radical behaviourist by experimenting Watson’s assertions in the laboratory. His laboratory experiments coupled with a number of researches led him to snub Watson’s exclusive allegations on conditioning and reflexes. Skinner avowed that humans not only respond to their surroundings, but operate on their surroundings to give rise to explicit consequences (Skinner, Catania Harnad 1988, p. 3). Furthermore, Skinner came up with the ‘operant conditioning’ theory, the notion that human behave the way they do as this sort of behaviour has had explicit effects long-ago. For instance, if a boy kisses a girl when she gives him flowers, then the girl will be expected to come with flowers when she wants a kiss from him. Thus, the girl will be acting in anticipation of specific reward. Contrary to Watson, Skinner rejected the idea that feelings or the human mind play a part in determining behaviour. He instead insisted that an individual experience of reinforcements determines his or her behaviour (Skinner, Catania Harnad 1988, p. 10). Therefore, according to radical behaviourism version, one of Skinner’s objective was to shape humans’ behaviour in away to respond in a much more socially tolerable way. In his operant conditioning theory he was absolutely clear that his theory ought to be applied to guide human behaviour (Shaffer 2005, p. 45). Moreover, Skinner’s experimental analysis of human or general behaviour has resulted in an effectual, effective and efficient technology, pertinent to psychotherapy, education, as well as the design of cultural practices generally (Shaffer 2005, p. 46). In conclusion, the ethical effects of both Watson’s and Skinner’s versions of behaviourism are immense. An individual is stripped off his or her freedom, dignity, responsibility and reduced to a merely natal being, to be ‘shaped’ by behaviourists who encompass the ability to apply the tools of behaviourism efficiently. Bibliography Cohen, D. (1987). Behaviorism, Oxford Companion to Mind, Richard, L. , ed. NY; Oxford University Press. DeMar, G. (1989). Behaviorism. [Online] available http://www. forerunner. com/forerunner/X0497_DeMar_-_Behaviorism. html Richards, G. (2009). Psychology, key concepts. Milton Park; Routledge. Shaffer, D. (2005). Social personality development. Belmont; Walworth. Skinner, B. , Catania, C. , Harnad, S. (1988). Selection of behaviour, operant behaviourism of Burrhus Frederic Skinner. Melbourne; Cambridge Syndicate Press. Wightman, R. , Kloppenberg, J. (1995). A companion to American thought. Massachusetts; Blackwell.

Why is Sir Isaac Newton Essay Example for Free

Why is Sir Isaac Newton Essay Why pick a scientist over someone who has contributed to any other field of endeavour? Look at the evidence: here is a person who discovered the universal law of why what goes up must come down, the explanation of the colours of a rainbow; and a method of calculation with applications in far reaching areas that affect our lives today. Newton is best known for formulating a universal law of gravitation, however it is unlikely that his ideas stemmed solely from the well-known story of an apple falling on his head whilst sat under a tree. His mathematical researches into planetary motion drew him to the conclusion that that the force of attraction that held planets in their orbits, and the Moon in its orbit around Earth, varied inversely with the square of their distance from the sun. In other words, the nearer you are to a planet the greater its force of gravitational pull. This was his fundamental law of gravitation. He discovered that the force of gravity affected all objects in the universe. His laws of motion can be summarised as follows: 1) Everything preserves its motion in a straight line unless its deflected from that course by a force. 2) The rate at which a body travels is in proportion to the force applied on it. 3) To every action there is an opposite and equal reaction These laws held true for many years and it was only until Einstein, in the twentieth century, proposed his theory of relativity that we were to have a more accurate picture of how the universe behaves. Newton is said to have invented the Calculus. The calculus, most simply put, is a way of finding the area under a curve drawn on a graph and the gradients of tangents drawn at any point on that curve. Why is this useful? Well, this allows us to find out rates, areas and volumes by what is known as differentiation and integration. For instance, if you wanted to find out how quickly your reconditioned MK1 Ford Cortina with go-faster stripes accelerated to 0-60 mph in, you could set up an experiment to plot the distance travelled by the car accelerating from a stand-still to its top speed against time. If you used differentiation on a corresponding curve drawn on a graph, you could find the speed of the car at any given time. Furthermore, if you used differentiation again, you could determine its acceleration. Alternatively, you could set up an experiment to measure the cars speed against time, if you were to find the area under the resultant curve using integration, you would be able to establish the distance travelled. Apart from measuring the performance of tasteful 70s automobiles, the calculus can be applied to more significant things like ascertaining reaction rates of chemicals, or discovering where the greatest stresses and strains are likely to be caused on a bridge. In the field of optics, Newton discovered that if a beam of sunlight were passed through a glass prism it would reveal rays forming a spectrum of colours, like that of a rainbow. He concluded that white light was composed of many different types of rays which when refracted at slightly different angles would produce a different spectral colour. He made this observation when using a refracting telescope and witnessed that the lenses were not clear but had an abnormal colour. It also led him to invent a reflecting telescope that did not display this aberration. But what of Newtons character: He typified the mathematical genius. He was obsessive by nature; at times toiling sixteen-hour days on work that would change the course of history. Anecdotes abound about his absent-mindedness, especially when entertaining friends (which he did rarely), where he would excuse himself to get more wine or run a similar errand, and would not return for some time because he had been busily working on some mathematical problem that had been troubling him, oblivious of his guests. He is someone who overcame adversity, probably being plagued with depression for most of his life, which resulted in him suffering two mental breakdowns. Despite his achievements he remained a modest man saying once: If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants. During his lifetime he never married, although one could argue that he was married to his work. He summed up his scientific endeavour and cosmic curiosity when he innocently remarked. I know not what I appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. Greatness but touched with humility, a lifetimes work that has had an enormous impact on the development of mankind and a single-minded pursuit to uncover the secrets of the universe: Surely Newton is the greatest Briton of all time.

Impact of Firm Level Characteristics

Impact of Firm Level Characteristics Abstract Organizational performance has attracted scholarly attention in corporate finance literature over the several decades. However, in the context of insurance sector, it has received a little attention. Current study examines the impact of firm level characteristics (size, leverage, tangibility, risk, growth, liquidity and age) on performance of listed life insurance companies of Pakistan over seven years from 2001 to 2007. The results of Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression analysis indicate that size, risk and leverage are important determinants of performance of life insurance companies of Pakistan while ROA has statistically insignificant relationship with growth, profitability, age and liquidity. Keywords: performance, firm level characteristics, life insurance companies. Introduction The performance of any firm not only plays the role to increase the market value of that specific firm but also leads towards the growth of the whole industry which ultimately leads towards the overall prosperity of the economy. Measuring the performance of insurers has gained the importance in the corporate finance literature because as intermediaries , these companies are not only providing the mechanism of risk transfer but also helps to channelizing the funds in an appropriate way to support the business activities in the economy . Insurance companies have importance both for businesses and individuals as they indemnify the losses and put them in the same positions as they were before the occurrence of the loss. In addition, insurers provide economic and social benefits in the society i.e. prevention of losses, reduction in anxiousness, fear and increasing employment. Therefore, the current business world without insurance companies is unsustainable because risky businesses have not a capacity to retain all types of risk in current extremely uncertain environment. For the past six decades, Pakistani life insurance companies have shown the impressive progress which not only creates the employment opportunities but also enhances the business activities in the economy. Financial statistics reported the phenomenal growth of Pakistani life insurance companies as these companies comprise 52% and 69% share of entire (life plus non-life) insurance market in terms of net premiums and assets (Insurance Year Book, 2007). In addition, the premium of these life insurers increased by 36% in 2007 (Insurance Year Book, 2007) shows the remarkable progress of life insurance sector of Pakistan. Therefore, what determines the performance of the life insurance industry is an important discussion for the regulators and policy makers to support the sector in achieving the excellence so that desirable economic fruits could be reaped from the help of the life insurance sector of Pakistan. Literature Review The Determinants of performance have been extensively studied in corporate finance literature from the last several decades. For instance; by selecting the sample of US banks, Berger (1995) investigated the impact of capital asset ratio on return on equity. He concluded that capital asset ratio has a positive relationship with profitability. Anghazo (1997) examined the impact of firm level characteristics on US bank net interest margin. The results documented that bank interest margin positively related with leverage, opportunity cost, and default risk and management efficiency. Neeley and Wheelock (1997) explored the determinants of profitability of commercial banks and find that profitability positively related with changes in per capita income. To investigate the performance of banks (Naceur Goaied, 2001)used the sample of Tunisian banks over the period of 1980 to 1995. They advocated that the banks who tried to maintain their high deposits and improve their capital and labor productivity are performed well. Guru et al. (2002) examined the determinants of performance of Malaysian banks over the 10 years period from 1986 to 1995. For this purpose, they selected both micro and macro level characteristics. The results revealed that inflation positively while efficient expense management and high interest rate negatively related with profitability. The results of Goddard et al. (2004) showed that Profit is an important prerequisite for future growth of banks and the banks that maintain a high capital assets ratio tend to grow slowly. A study conducted by the (Sufian Parman, 2009)to investigate the determinants of profitability by selecting the non-commercial banks financial institutions. The findings indicated that credit risk and loan intensity negatively related with profitability while large size and financial institutions with high operational expenses tended to high profitability ratio. (Hakim Neaime, 2005) Observed that liquidity, current capital and investment are the important determinants of banks profitability. (Aburime, 2006) Identified the firm level determinants of profitability of Nigerian banks over the five years period from 2000 to 2004. He concluded that credit portfolio, size, capital size and ownership concentration are important determinants of Nigerian banks. (Kosmidou, 2008) showed that money supply growth has insignificant impact on profitability while GDP and stock market capitalization to assets are significant and have negative relation with the ROA. (Asimakopoulos, Samitas, Papadogo nas, 2009) illustrated that Firms profitability is positively affected by size, sales growth and investment. On the other hand, leverage and current assets negatively related with profitability. Severeral studies also have been conducted to measure the performance of the insurance compnies. For instance; Sloan, A and Conover, J.(1998) deduced that functional status of insurers do not affect the profitability of being insured but public coverage have significant impact on profitability of insurance companies. Chen and Wong ( 2004) examined that size, investment, liquidity are the important determinants of financial health of insurance companies. Chen et al.( 2009) examined the determinants of profitability and the results showed that profitability of insurance companies decreased with the increase in equity ratio. In addition, insurance companies must have to diversify their investment and use effective hedging techniques which help them to create better financial revenues. Research Methodology Sample and Data Currently, there are five life insurance companies operating in Pakistan and all these five companies are selected to measuring their performance over the period of seven years from 2001 to 2007. For this purpose, financial data has been collected from financial statements (Balance Sheets and Profit and Loss a/c) of insurance companies and à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Insurance Year Bookà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? which is published by Insurance Association of Pakistan. Model PR = ÃŽÂ ²0 + ÃŽÂ ²1 (LG) + ÃŽÂ ²2 (TA) + ÃŽÂ ²3 (SZ) + ÃŽÂ ²4 (LQ) + ÃŽÂ ²5 (AG) + ÃŽÂ ²6 (RK) + ÃŽÂ ²7 (GR) + ÃŽÂ µ Where: PR = Performance (Net income before interest and tax divided by total assets) LG = Leverage (Total debts divided by total assets) TA = Tangibility (Fixed assets divided by total assets) SZ = Size (Log of premiums) LQ = Liquidity (Current assets divided by current liabilities) AG = Age (Difference b/w observation year and establishment year) RK = Risk (standard deviation of ratio of total claims to total premiums) GR = Growth (Percentage change in premiums) ÃŽÂ µ = the error term Descriptive Statistics Table 4.1 presents descriptive analysis of the firm level characteristic associated with life insurance sector. This study considers performance as dependent variable whereas leverage, size, growth, tangibility, liquidity, age and risk as independent variables. The industry average is provided by mean along with are the minima and maxima for respective year while standard deviation indicates the inter-industry variation of the variables value within the respective year. Table 4.1 indicates that the minimum value of industry mean of leverage is 0.79 in 2004 and 2007 while the mean value is at its maximum level in 2006 at 0.84.The maximum variation in leverage is observed in 2007 valuing at 0.30 and minimum is found in 2003 at 0.19. The variable size constantly shows the increasing trend from year 2001 to 2007. The mean value of size is at maximum level in 2007 i.e. 7.51 whereas minimum mean value for size is observed at 6.02 in 2001. In addition, the inter industry variation is minimum in 2001 at 2.12. Table 4.1 also shows that growth of Pakistani life insurance companies is not consistent in all seven years and mean value of growth is reached 34.84 in 2007 from 11.53 which is observed in 2001. The mean value of performance (dependent variable) is maximum in 2007 valuing at 0.07 and the minimum value is observed in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2005 at 0.02. The standard deviation is also not very high i.e. around 0.02 as compare to other variables except in the year 2007 in which it touches it maximum of 0.07. Table 4.2 also provides descriptive results of tangibility, liquidity, age and risk for the period of seven years from 2001 to 2007 for the life insurance sector of Pakistan. The mean values and standard deviations of tangibility is around 0.03 and 0.02 respectively in all seven years from 2001 to 2007.The mean values of liquidity are indicating an increasing trend from the minimum of 1.70 in 2001 to the maximum value at 6.36 in 2007. The standard deviation is also establishing an increasing trend from a minimum value of 0.76 in 2001 to a maximum value of 8.63 in 2007.The mean value of risk is at its lowest level in 2003 at 0.58 with a minimum standard deviation of 0.45 while these values have reached their maximum level in 2007 i.e. 6.35 and 6.51 respectively. Analysis Table 4.2 reports the results of regression analysis in which seven independent variables are regressed by using the data of life insurance sector of Pakistan from 2001 to 2007. The value of R square (0.816) indicates that performance of life insurance companies is nearly 82% dependent on independent variables i.e. size, leverage, growth, tangibility, age, risk and liquidity. Therefore, performance is mainly defined by these seven variables of life insurers in Pakistan over seven years. Table 4.2 indicates that leverage is negatively and significantly related with the performance of the life insurance companies. This predicts that the performance of highly levered Pakistani life insurance companies is not up to the mark. Table 4.2 also shows that coefficient of variable size is positive and statistically significant at 1% level. This predicts that performance of large size life insurance companies is better than small size companies. The negative coefficient of growth indicates a negative relationship between growth and performance. However, this negative relationship is found to be statistically insignificant with the p-value of 0.809. Therefore, growth is not considered as a proper explanatory variable of performance in life insurance sector. The beta values of explanatory variables tangibility and liquidity are 0.507 and 0.001 respectively with the positive coefficient sign. However, tangibility and liquidity are not statistically significant with the large p-values. Therefore, tangibility and liquidity are not Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients t Sig. B Std. Error Beta (Constant) .010 .051 .204 .841 Leverage -.265 .090 -1.579 -2.940 .008* Size .038 .009 1.722 4.120 .001* Growth -4.69 .000 -.032 -.245 .809 Tangibility .507 .367 .183 1.382 .183 Liquidity .001 .003 .058 .205 .840 Age -.003 .003 -.235 -1.169 .257 Risk .004 .002 .374 1.903 .072** considered a powerful explanatory variable to define the performance of life insurance companies in Pakistan over seven years. Negative coefficient of variable age specifies the Table: 4.2 Regression Coefficients Their Significance level R Square 0.816 Adjusted R Square 0.749 F statistics 12.062 * Significant at 1% level **Significant at 10% level ______________________________________ negative relationship between performance and age of the Pakistani life insurance companies. However, the relationship between performance and age is statistically insignificant. Table 4.2 indicates that the coefficient of variable risk is positive and statistically significant at 10% level. According to the nature of insurance industry, ratio of total claims to total premiums (loss ratio) is used as a proxy to measure the risk of the life insurance companies in Pakistan. Positive sign shows a positive relationship between performance and risk of the insurance companies i.e. performance increases with the increase of loss ratio. Conclusion The current study investigates the impact of firm level characteristics on performance of the life insurance sector of Pakistan over the period of seven years from 2001 to 2007. For this purpose, size, profitability, age, risk, growth and tangibility are selected as explanatory variables while ROA is taken as dependent variable. The results of OLS regression analysis reveal that leverage, size and risk are most important determinant of performance of life insurance sector whereas ROA has statistically insignificant relationship with profitability, growth, tangibility and liquidity. TABLE 4.1: Descriptive Statistics Years Leverage Size Growth Performance Mean SD Min Max Mean SD Min Max Mean SD Min Max Mean SD Min Max 2001 0.80 0.21 0.45 0.99 6.02 2.12 3.06 8.93 11.53 11.90 3.22 32.39 0.02 0.01 0.00 0.03 2002 0.81 0.20 0.47 0.99 6.21 2.11 3.29 9.07 22.21 23.52 3.68 60.99 0.02 0.01 0.00 0.03 2003 0.82 0.19 0.51 0.99 6.50 2.08 3.57 9.20 37.18 32.62 8.30 90.71 0.02 0.01 0.00 0.03 2004 0.79 0.24 0.38 0.99 6.68 2.09 3.56 9.31 22.20 27.93 -1.78 61.16 0.03 0.02 0.00 0.05 2005 0.83 0.21 0.47 0.99 6.95 2.03 3.96 9.53 31.18 10.30 24.97 48.98 0.02 0.02 0.00 0.05 2006 0.84 0.20 0.49 0.99 7.21 2.02 4.24 9.68 31.79 26.14 3.74 72.78 0.03 0.02 0.00 0.06 2007 0.79 0.30 0.26 1.00 7.51 2.06 4.50 10.03 34.82 9.25 22.44 45.66 0.07 0.07 0.00 0.17 TABLE 4.1 (Continued): Descriptive Statistics Years Tangibility Liquidity Age Risk Mean SD Min Max Mean SD Min Max Mean SD Min Max Mean SD Min Max 2001 0.03 0.02 0.00 0.06 1.70 0.76 1.07 2.65 16.60 20.40 6.00 53.00 1.92 1.33 0.70 3.94 2002 0.03 0.02 0.00 0.06 1.73 0.86 1.14 3.01 17.60 20.40 7.00 54.00 0.83 0.47 0.40 1.34 2003 0.03 0.02 0.00 0.05 2.18 1.11 1.22 3.72 18.60 20.40 8.00 55.00 0.58 0.45 0.18 1.34 2004 0.02 0.02 0.00 0.04 2.24 1.77 1.09 4.85 19.60 20.40 9.00 56.00 3.34 3.08 0.00 7.23 2005 0.02 0.02 0.00 0.04 3.02 2.26 1.15 5.94 20.60 20.40 10.00 57.00 4.70 2.15 1.23 6.36 2006 0.02 0.01 0.00 0.03 3.98 2.72 1.36 7.37 21.60 20.40 11.00 58.00 3.60 3.86 0.51 9.72 2007 0.02 0.02 0.00 0.05 6.36 8.63 1.33 16.33 22.60 20.40 12.00 59.00 6.35 6.51 1.78 16.00 Table: 4.2 Regression Coefficients Their Significance level Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients t Sig. B Std. Error Beta (Constant) .010 .051 .204 .841 Leverage -.265 .090 -1.579 -2.940 .008* Size .038 .009 1.722 4.120 .001* Growth -4.69 .000 -.032 -.245 .809 Tangibility .507 .367 .183 1.382 .183 Liquidity .001 .003 .058 .205 .840 Age -.003 .003 -.235 -1.169 .257 Risk .004 .002 .374 1.903 .072** R Square 0.816 Adjusted R Square 0.749 F statistics 12.062 * Significant at 1% level **Significant at 10% level

Essay on the Character of Ophelia in Hamlet :: Essays on Shakespeare Hamlet

The Character of Ophelia in Hamlet      Ã‚   Ophelia is a beautiful and simple-minded woman, easily molded by the more powerful opinions and desires of others. The thoughts of her father and her brother influenced her the most. The love letters from Hamlet also swayed her opinions and confused her mind. Ophelia wasn't able to realize herself because of all the pressures exerted on her to be something she's not. That weakness of mind and will, which permitted her obedience to her father and thus destroyed her hope for Hamlet's love, finally resulted in her insanity and death.    When her father had challenged the honor of Hamlet's intentions, Ophelia could only reply "I do not know, my lord, what I should think" (III, iii). Used to relying upon her father's direction and brought up to be obedient, she can only accept her father's belief, seconded by that of her brother, that Hamlet's "holy vows" of love were simply designed for her seduction. She was to obey her father's orders not to permit Hamlet to see her again. Her father also wanted to prove Hamlet's madness to the king. He used Ophelia as bait so he and the king could listen to Hamlet's words. Ophelia willingly obliged to her father's desires. By not thinking for herself and only doing as her father wished, she ruined her chances of love with Hamlet.    Hamlet put pressure on Ophelia by expecting her to surpass his mother's shortcomings and be an epitome of womankind. He searched her innocent face for some sign of loving truth that might restore his faith in her. He took her mute terror for a sign of her guilt and found her to be a false person, like his mother. In his letter to her, he addressed the letter to "the most beautified Ophelia" and he terminated the letter with "I love thee best, O most best, believe it" (II, ii). He used the word "beautified" to display a sincere tribute, and it is apparent he still loves her. His attempts to win her affection are not triumphant. Ophelia is still too much under the influence of her father to question his wisdom or authority, and she has no mind of her own to understand how much she has made her lover suffer. No matter how much it pained her to not see Hamlet, all she could see in his present behavior is the madness that terrified her.

Events Surrounding Josephus writing Description of the Roman Army Essay

â€Å"This account I have given the reader, not so much with the intention of commending the Romans, as of comforting those that have been conquered by them, and for the deterring others from attempting innovations under their government. This discourse of the Roman military conduct may also perhaps be of use to such of the curious as are ignorant of it, and yet have a mind to know it.† –excerpt from â€Å"Description of the Roman Army,† by Josephus Josephus, a Jewish priest, was said to be hated by his Jewish people for the relationship he held with Rome and the Romans hated him because of his ties to the Jewish faith. His writings have been criticized as being nothing more than Pro-Roman propaganda. Born in the year 37 C.E., a few years after the time of Jesus, Josephus was born Joseph ben Mattathius, in Jerusalem. He grew up in the Early Common Era, during the time the Romans occupied his Jewish homeland. His father was a priest and his mother was of royal descent. He was well educated, fluent in both Hebrew and Aramaic and spoke but could barely write in Greek and Latin. By the age of 14, he was being consulted by high priests in the matters of Jewish law. He was a very intelligent, young man. He was a Jewish priest, a scholar, and a historian. In his early twenties, Josephus was called away to Rome to negotiate the release of some priests being held hostage by Emperor Nero. Upon his return, he found that his nation had begun a revolution with the Romans. He was then drafted into becoming commander of the revolutionary forces of Galilee. He spent more time trying to work out internal problems than fighting the Roman Army. When Jotapata, the city he was defending, was taken over by Roman General Vespasian, he and h... ...rationalized that he might’ve done whatever he could to please his captures. I believe that from reading â€Å"The Description of the Roman Army,† that Josephus really, truly, admired the Roman Army. He did believe them to be superior organization. He described their nature as being a â€Å"perfect discipline† and described them as very efficient. He goes on to say that â€Å"their opponents cannot match theses qualities.† It is understandable that his own people would consider him a traitor, because he is glorifying the Roman Army, the army that destroyed his people. This is a historical document, however accurate or inaccurate it might be, it is one of the very few pieces of writing we have from back in the time of the Jewish war. It is highly influential. I think it’s a very interesting piece of history. It gives us some perspective into this classical period in time.

Hero in Ernest Hemingways The Sun Also Rises :: Hemingway Sun Also Rises Essays

The Hero in The Sun Also Rises      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Prevalent among many of Ernest Hemingway's novels is the concept popularly known as the "Hemingway hero", or â€Å"code hero†, an ideal character readily accepted by American readers as a "man's man". In The Sun Also Rises, four different men are compared and contrasted as they engage in some form of relationship with Lady Brett Ashley, a near-nymphomaniac Englishwoman who indulges in her passion for sex and control. Brett plans to marry her fiancà ©e for superficial reasons, completely ruins one man emotionally and spiritually, separates from another to preserve the idea of their short-lived affair and to avoid self-destruction, and denies and disgraces the only man whom she loves most dearly. All her relationships occur in a period of months, as Brett either accepts or rejects certain values or traits of each man. Brett, as a dynamic and self-controlled woman, and her four love interests help demonstrate Hemingway's standard definition of a man and/or m asculinity. Each man Brett has a relationship with in the novel possesses distinct qualities that enable Hemingway to explore what it is to truly be a man. The Hemingway man thus presented is a man of action, of self-discipline and self-reliance, and of strength and courage to confront all weaknesses, fears, failures, and even death.      Ã‚  Ã‚   Jake Barnes, as the narrator and supposed hero of the novel, fell in love with Brett some years ago and is still powerfully and uncontrollably in love with her. However, Jake is unfortunately a casualty of the war, having been emasculated in a freak accident. Still adjusting to his impotence at the beginning of the novel, Jake has lost all power and desire to have sex. Because of this, Jake and Brett cannot be lovers and all attempts at a relationship that is sexually fulfilling are simply futile. Brett is a passionate, lustful woman who is driven by the most intimate and loving act two may share, something that Jake just cannot provide her with. Jake's emasculation only puts the two in a grandly ironic situation. Brett is an extremely passionate woman but is denied the first man she feels true love and admiration for. Jake has loved Brett for years and cannot have her because of his inability to have sex. It is obvious that their love is mutual when Jake tries to kiss B rett in their cab ride home: "'You mustn't.

Electron Arrangement and EMR Essay

Chemical Reaction is a process that involves rearrangement of the molecular or ionic structure of a substance, as opposed to a change in physical form or a nuclear reaction. Reactant is a substance participating in a chemical reaction, especially a directly reacting substance present at the initiation of the reaction. A word equation is an equation where only the words of the products and reactants are given. It is used to describe chemical reactions using words. A skeletal equation is a chemical equation that is not balanced, with an unequal number of atoms on each side of the reaction. A chemical equation is the symbolic representation of a chemical reaction wherein the reactant entities are given on the left-hand side and the product entities on the right-hand side. A Coefficient is the number that normally appears at the beginning of a term in a chemical equation. It indicates the number of molecules or atoms that were involved in the chemical reaction. 1.H2 + Br2 —–> 2HBr 2.Potassium Chlorate —-> Potassium Chloride + Oxygen = KClO3 ——> KCl + O2 KClO3 ——> KCl + O2 Balanced = 2KClO3 ——> 2KCl + 3O2 3.FeCl3 + 3NaOH = Fe(OH)3 + 3NaCl 4.Zn (s) + H2SO4 (aq) = ZnSO4 (aq) + H2 (g) 5.CuS + HNO3 -> CuSO4 + H2O + N2O CuS + 2 HNO3 -> CuSO4 + H2O + N2O

How I Learned to Sweep by Julia Alvarez Essay

1. In which form is the poem written (for example, is it a sonnet? Free verse? Lyric poem This poem was written in 1996 in a conventional style form. The poem has 39 lines. 2. What is the setting and social context of the poem? The setting and social context of this poem is in America in the mid 90’s when the war in the Far East was going on as it is stated in the poem. It takes place in her home or apartment or wherever she stays. She is living with her mom because her mom orders her to sweep the floor. 3. Does the poem demonstrate a rhyme scheme? If so, what is it? The poem doesn’t really demonstrate a rhyme scheme. It is written in a pretty straight forward matter. 4. Point out any similes that you find in the poem. How do they contribute to the overall meaning of the poem? There are several similes present in the poem. One is when her mother says she wants to be able to eat dinner off that table. She was implying to her daughter that the floor was dirty and that it needed to be clean. It was indirectly said. Another simile is when it says, â€Å"Her floor was as immaculate as a just washed dinner plate† (Line 13). This implied that she had cleaned the floor so good that it was as cl ean as a clean dinner plate. Another simile was when it said, â€Å"I watched a dozen of them die- as if their dust fell through the screen† (Line 29). This implied that the violence that she was witnessing on television was so brutal and affected her that she felt that she had to clean harder. To get rid of the fallen dust that she imagined. All these contributed to the overall meaning of the poem because it makes you be able to vision some of the scenes and events that can be hard to understand if they weren’t written in that way. 5. Point out any metaphors that you find in the poem. How do they contribute to the overall meaning of the poem? The metaphors that were in the poem were the same as the similes. They contribute to the overall meaning of the poem because without metaphors one would not be hooked to what they are reading. Trying to imagine what the author is talking about is crucial when writing poetry, as it is usually a short piece and small instances of events that happen. 6. Point out any instances of personification that you find in the poem. How do they contribute to the overall meaning of the poem? The only instance of personification that I can find in this poem is when her mom inspects the work and says that she did a good job. Her exact words were â€Å"That’s beautiful†. There is not much personification in this poem otherwise. Personification contributes to the overall meaning of the poem because when you are referencing someone or something that is of importance it is important to tie that to something else that resembles that importance. 7. Point out any imagery that you find in the poem. How do they contribute to the overall meaning of the poem? There are many examples of imagery in the poem. When referencing to the war and how she swept harder and faster after imaging the soldiers dead ashes coming through her TV screen. Much of the imagery found in the poem was the same that was found in the simile and metaphor. They contribute to the overall meaning of the poem because without imagery one could not relate to a poem. It would be very difficult. With so many examples of imagery in this poem I was really able to imagine the outcome and overall meaning of the poem. 8. Are there other instances of figurative language that you see (metonymy, synecdoche, symbols, archetypes)? Discuss. After looking over the poem several times there were no other instances of figurative language that I could see. 9. Who is the speaker in the poem? What is the significance of the person who is speaking? The speaker in the poem is the author. It is written in first person. I think the fact that the speaker is the author makes it more real and personable. The story is probably something that the author experienced first hand. It makes it harder to write about someone or something when you haven’t experienced it first hand. 10. What is your personal reaction to what happens in the poem? My personal reaction to what happens in the poem is good. I think she learned a lesson of hard work and doing what you are told. There are people out there serving our country and making sure we are safe and we should do our part to work hard and be good citizens. Works Cited Alvarez, Julia, â€Å"How I Learned to Sweep†. Approaching Literature. Ed. Peter Schakel and jack Ridl. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2008. 650

Attitudes Towards War in A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway Essay

Ernest Hemingway was one of the most influential writers of the Modern period. After being rejected from the army, Hemingway entered the war in 1917 as an ambulance driver on the Italian front. Hemingway’s relationship with the war could have been his reason for writing his novel A Farewell to Arms. A Farewell to Arms takes place in Italy in World War I. The novel tells of the conflicts of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front, Frederick Henry, and his difficulties with war, love and death. In this particular novel, Hemingway expresses several different attitudes towards war through the characters Frederick Henry, Lieutenant Rinaldi, and Gino. World War I has no extreme effect on Frederick Henry. He feels as though it is not his war to fight since his country has very little to do with it. Henry does not even realize the seriousness of the war until it takes its toll on him. Frederick Henry mentions, â€Å"Well, I knew I would not be killed. Not in this war. It did not have anything to do with me. It seemed no more dangerous to me than war in the movies† (37; ch. 7). The war is no more than another adventure to Frederick Henry. It seems he is in the war just to have something to do. Catherine says to Henry † ‘Why did you join up with the Italians?’ ‘I was in Italy,’ I said, ‘and I spoke Italian'† (22; ch. 5). Clearly Henry does not care much for the war. He feels uncomfortable with the passion others feel for it, such as Gino, and Henry exemplifies this when he mentions, â€Å"I was always embarrassed by the words sacred, glorious, sacrifice and the expression in vainâ₠¬  (184; ch. 27). He goes on to say, â€Å"I had seen nothing sacred, and the things that were glorious had no glory†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (185; ch. 27). Lieutenant Rinaldi’s outlook on the war is depressing, and he feels as thought he war has torn his entire world apart. Rinaldi used to the happy go lucky man who always had a couple of drinks and a good time until the war truly takes its toll on him. â€Å"The war is killing me. I am very depressed by it† (167; ch. 25). He is telling this to Frederick Henry after a long separation period when Henry was in the hospital. Rinaldi has clearly changed and Henry notices right away. Unlike Henry, Lieutenant Rinaldi seems  to get a sense of belonging from the war, and he felt like he was needed as a talented surgeon. As soon as Rinaldi is no longer needed for operating anymore, he no longer feels he is needed in the war, and his place in society becomes unclear. Rinaldi comments to Henry, â€Å"I don’t operate now and I feel like hell. This is a terrible war baby. You believe me when I say it† (167; ch. 25). Gino is the man who shows Henry around Gozoria after Henry’s return from Milan. Gino thinks of the war as a big opportunity to show loyalty for his country. All he wants to do is make a difference in the army, and he almost refuses to admit to the harsh realities of war. Gino believes that all great acts are done strictly out of the goodness in people’s hearts and are done only to be loyal patriots. Gino says to Henry, â€Å"We won’t talk about losing. There is enough talk about losing. What has been done this summer cannot have been done in vain† (184; ch. 27). Gino clearly thinks all men should be as patriot as he is, and does not seem to understand those who are not. Henry realizes this and respects Gino’s opinions and beliefs. â€Å"Gino was a patriot, so he said things that separated us sometimes, but he was also a fine boy and I understood his being a patriot. He was born one† (185; ch. 27). Frederick Henry, Lieutenant Rinaldi, and Gino are very different characters with very different attitudes towards the war in the novel A Farewell to Arms. Hemingway uses his unique style to show the different opinions through his Hemingway heroes. All of these characters have different views on war, and this shows Hemingway’s respect for all of these opinions.

Improving Quality to Improve Profits

Improving Quality to Improve Profits XXXXXXXX BUS 642: Business Research Methods & Tools Prof. Donna Wall September 10, 2012 ? Improving Quality to Improve Profit Public companies continuously experience pressure to increase profits for shareholders. One method of increasing profits is to reduce expenses. One expense Schlumberger management believes is totally within the company’s control is the first pass yield of their products. Specifically, Schlumberger management believed that raising the first pass yield of their product to at least 99% would result in at least a 1% increase in profit.As Fawcett & Calantone (2000) point out â€Å"quality’s relevance extends to its ability to reduce costs of defective work. Crosby estimated that the cost of quality are equivalent to 15 to 20 percent of sales revenue and argued that if quality were improved, total cost would inevitably fall, increasing firms profitability† (par. 22). As a result, Schlumberger management autho rized a study to validate their hypothesis and determine specific focus areas to place resources that will maximize the effort for achieving results.To start the validation, the research team decided to utilize the specific research process charted in Business Research Methods written by Cooper and Schindler. As Cooper and Schindler (2011) point out â€Å"good research generates dependable data that are derived by professionally conducted practices and that can be used reliably for decision making† (p. 12). Cooper and Schindler (2011) go on to state â€Å"good research follows the standard scientific method: systematic, empirically based procedures for generating replicable research† (p. 2). As a result, this particular study will follow the process of clearly define the purpose, provide process details, thoroughly plan the research design, provide high ethical standards, reveal any limitations honestly, provide adequate analysis for the decision makers, present findin gs unambiguously, justify the conclusions, and reflect the researcher’s experience. The first step in the overall process is to clearly defined purpose. To complete this step we need to answer the following questions.Question one is what is the management dilemma? Question two is what are the management questions? Question three is what are the research questions? And the forth question is what are the investigative questions? In this case, the management dilemma is how to increase profit margin. The management question is if we increase first pass yield to 99%, will profit margin increase by at least 1% given everything else stays equal? The research questions are what areas of the business should management allocate resources to improve first pass yield?The investigation questions are 1) what is the current first pass yield of our manufacturing facilities? 2) What is the first pass yield of each manufacturing facility? 3) What is the first pass yield of each product group? 4) What is the first pass yield of our incoming material from all suppliers? 5) What is the first pass yield of each active supplier? 6) What is the current profit margin? Next in the overall process is to create an operational definition for the study. In this particular study specific definitions are needed.For consistency, we will utilize the Association for Operations Management (or APICS) definitions for operating profit and first pass yield. APICS defines profit margin as â€Å"the difference between the sales and cost of goods sold for an organization. † According to APICS first pass yield is defined as â€Å"the ration of products that conform to specifications without rework or modification to total input. † This definition will be used in our manufacturing facilities as well as incoming material from our suppliers.Other terms that need to be defined for clarity include Schlumberger manufacturing assembly site facility, supplier, approved supplier list, and cu rrent active suppliers. Schlumberger manufacturing site will be defined as any manufacturing or assembly site Schlumberger owns. A supplier will be defined as any company delivering components, sub-assemblies, or final products that are not owned by Schlumberger. Approved supplier list will be defined as the list of suppliers approved by Schlumberger through the Quality Manufacturing and Safety (QMS) Audit and first article processes.Current active suppliers will be defined as any supplier that has supplied components, sub-assemblies or end products to Schlumberger within the last year. Part numbers will be considered active if Schlumberger has ordered or received a part number in the last year and has a forecast or purchase order placed for delivery within the next two years. Items that are considered out of scope for this study include software, services, facilities contractors, and transportation services. Any new products not released prior to the start of this study will also b e considered out of scope for this research.The primary method of gathering data will be to analyze and consolidate the raw information currently in the corporate databases. These databases include Approved Supplier List, eQuality, Incoming Inspection, Quest, and Finance. The research team does not plan to conduct any formal surveys at this time. The research team will consist of at least one person from each of the potential stakeholders. These stakeholders will include Finance, Quality, Supply Chain Management, Procurement, Manufacturing, and Information Technology (IT).Schlumberger has several databases with significant raw data in each. The team realizes that obtaining and consolidating this information in a usable form might require the help of IT resources and potentially delay the overall results of the study. The research team plans to obtain the following information from the data available in the databases. The team will begin gathering data closest to the end customer and move upstream in the process flow to analyze the major process points along the supply chain.As a result, the team will review the current overall first pass yield for all Schlumberger manufacturing sites, each individual manufacturing site, and each product line. In addition, the research team will analyze the first pass yield at incoming inspection from the suppliers. This information will be analyzed at a global level, by supplier, and by Schlumberger manufacturing site location. The team will also determine how many suppliers are in the approved supplier database and compare this number to the current active suppliers.Since Pareto Analysis is such an important data analysis tool, this research team plans to utilize this approach as the primary method of organizing the data. As Karuppusami & Gandhinathan (2006) point out a Pareto Analysis is a QC tool that ranks the data classifications in the descending order from the highest frequency of occurrences to the lowest frequency of occurrences. The total frequency is equated to 100 percent. The â€Å"vital few† items occupy a substantial amount (80 per cent) of cumulative percentage of occurrences and the â€Å"useful many† occupy only the remaining 20 per cent of occurrences† (par. 2). Utilizing Pareto Analysis will provide an easy way to determine where to focus resources for maximum benefit. Analyzing the resource allocation and budget needs to support this study reveals we need a core team of six people, a budget of $350,000, and four months to present the teams findings. At least one team member will represent the following functions in the company. These functions include Finance, Quality, Supply Chain Management, Procurement, Manufacturing, and IT. The Finance Vice-president will be the champion of the study.Other employees will be involved as needed to complete the research. The budget includes salaries of the team members for four months, researching internal databases, potentially developing IT scripts to extract needed data and potentially visiting manufacturing facilities and suppliers to validate data or obtain additional detailed information. As in any research project, handling the study with the highest ethics is extremely important. As Cooper and Schindler (2011) point out â€Å"the goal of ethics is to ensure that no one is harmed or suffers adverse consequences from research activity† (p. 2). Cooper and Schindler (2011) go on to state â€Å"unethical activities are pervasive and include violating nondisclosure agreements, breaking participant confidentiality, misrepresenting results, deceiving people, using invoicing irregularities, avoiding legal liability, and more† (p. 32). Although this research team does not plan to conduct ‘official† surveys, the team will conduct interviews with various participants to verify the data. In each case, the research team will disclose the nature of the study before engaging participants. Although Schlumberger has a strict no retaliation policy in the company, the final research report will not include the specific employee names of Schlumberger or suppliers employees. The primary focus of the study will be following and presenting the data related to product quality and increasing profits. The research team will honor all nondisclosure agreements and report the overall facts honestly. Consistent with company and standard research policy, the highest safety practices will be used throughout the study.Consistent with the research approach, the research team analyzed the data for the company owned manufacturing sites, first. This raw data revealed Schlumberger has a total of twenty-seven company owned manufacturing sites located in nine different countries. To review the first pass yield of these facilities, the research team reviewed a total of 4,376 quality records posted during 2012. The overall first pass yield for all twenty-seven facilities is 82 percent. The thr ee facilities with the lowest first pass yields are all located in the Houston area.The three product lines with the lowest first pass yield are Pressure and Sampling (59%), Seismic (67%), and Drilling (71%). Next, the tea m began to analyze the information regarding our supplier performance. Based on the raw data, Schlumberger has a total of 5,778 approved suppliers. Of these suppliers 63% (or 3640) are considered active suppliers by definition. Of these active suppliers, twenty suppliers account for 61% of the line items delivered to the twenty-seven facilities. Three specific suppliers have the lowest first pass yield. These three suppliers are Freeport (46%), Harrison (61%), and Tenaris (63%).Based on public financial records, the current profit margin is recorded as $0. 98 per share in Q1FY12 and $1. 02 per share in Q2FY12. This translates into $1. 303 billion in Q1FY12 and $1. 40 billion in Q2FY12. A one percent increase in profit would increase earnings by just over $13 milli on per quarter. To validate the first pass yield data, the research team visited four company owned manufacturing sites each in North America, Europe, and Asia. Two of the facilities visited in each region recorded the highest first pass yields in that region.Two of the facilities visited in each region recorded the worst first pass yields in that region. During these visits, the research team took a tour of each facility, conducted an audit of the quality records and interviewed key members of each manufacturing team including the Process Engineers, Quality Engineers, Incoming Inspection and Finished Goods Inventory Warehouse Managers. During the audit, the research team reviewed each facilities documented processes, actual processes utilized and the data recorded in the quality database.To the research team’s surprise, the methods utilized in each of the facilities were not consistent – either documented or in actual practice. The North American and European faciliti es utilized and practiced the definition of first pass yield consistent with the research team’s definition. However, the Asian manufacturing facilities did not record the actual first pass yield per our definition. Instead, if a product failed testing, the Asian facilities would retest the product. If the product passed testing during the second or even the third test and passed, they recorded a positive first pass quality yield.The finding of inconsistent data records in the Asian facilities weakened the confidence in the raw data analyzed previously. However, it did uncover an opportunity to strengthen the company’s overall processes. In summary, the raw data suggests Houston manufacturing facilities have the three low yields of the twenty-seven in total. However, these facilities might not be the lowest yields because the research team uncovered inconsistencies in the data collection definition and process between the Asian manufacturing facilities and the European or North American facilities.As a result, a further study is recommended of the Asian facilities to determine how significant the overall raw data is skewed by them utilizing a different process to collect and record first pass yield. At the same time resources should be placed in the Houston facilities to raise the first pass yield from the current low level to 99%. Since the data and process for collecting and recording the data for the supplier first pass yield is consistent, the research team is confident in the results achieved.It is the recommendation of the research team to focus resources on the three lowest yielding suppliers. These resources should conduct a more detailed analysis to uncover the Pareto Analysis of the top defects. Once the top three defects are determined, the root cause and appropriate corrective actions can be determined to raise the first pass yield to the appropriate levels. Reviewing the financial evidence suggests a 1% increase in profit is achievab le if the overall first pass yield of Schlumberger manufacturing facilities rises to 99%.To achieve this high yield levels quickly, the company will need a systematic and consistent approach across all facilities and suppliers. One such process to consider is implementing a combined Lean and Six Sigma continuous improvement approach in each manufacturing facility and with our suppliers. Since determining the cost of implementing Lean and Six Sigma process is out of scope for this research team, a further study would be needed to determine the cost of implementing significant process improvement verse the potential 1% benefit per quarter.Throughout this research the team worked well together. Having a process to follow made the overall activities much easier to accomplish in a systematic way. All members believed the success of this study was largely due to the planning at the beginning of the process. To keep the project on track, it was important to define exactly what activities w ere in the scope of the project and what was considered of of scope. When the team uncovered inconsistencies, in data collection or processes, we were able to document the information an continue progress toward the overall goal.Now that this study is complete the information will be recorded in our company Quest database for future reference. References APICS deifinitions First Pass Yield http://www. apics. org/dictionary/dictionary-information? ID=1543 Profit Margin http://www. apics. org/dictionary/dictionary-information? ID=3188 Cooper, D. R. and Schindler, P. S. (2011). Business research methods (11th ed. ). New York : McGraw-Hill Irwin Fawcett, S. E. , & Calantone, R. J. (2000).Meeting quality and cost imperatives in a global market. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 30(6), 472-499. Retrieved from http://search. proquest. com/docview/232588532? accountid=32521 Karuppusami, G. , & Gandhinathan, R. (2006). Pareto analysis of critical success factors of total quality management. The TQM Magazine, 18(4), 372-385. doi: 10. 1108/09544780610671048. Retrieved from http://search. proquest. com/docview/227643251/fulltext/13911EA989455E63FDD/3? accountid=32521