THE Breaking the chins of psychological slavery by na'im akbar Essay

THE Breaking the chins of psychological slavery by na'im akbar - Essay Example In order to break out of the chains of mental slavery, it is essential for people to recognize their character. The author advises people to recognize the characters of other people. The author highlights how religion contributed to the emergence of chains of mental slavery. In the first chapter, the author explored the psychological legacy of slavery. This chapter focused on issues such as work, property, leadership, the clown, community division, personal inferiority, and the family and color discrimination (Akbar 2). I agree with the author’s views on these issues. The first chapter gives a historical background of slavery. Slavery caused long lasting social shock and trauma to African Americans. At work, African American slaves were considered as second-class humans. The Africans were subjected to mistreatment and punishment in their workplaces. In addition, they were given dehumanizing duties. It is vital to note that African American slaves did not have any rights in their workplaces. This animalistic treatment of slaves and the cruelty they faced added to the mental and communal distresses suffered by the affected people. In the case of property, African Americans were not allowed to own property since they were considered as property. The author notes that slaves were disqualified to own things because their owners or masters saw them as things. They could only have the necessary things required for the completion of their duties and tasks. The society expected slaves to live a simple life. Slaves were required to take orders from their masters. In most of the instances, the master’s children even gave orders to slaves. In case the slave refused to act on the orders from the master’s children, they were punished and humiliated. The gap between the master and their slaves led to hatred and disgust that led to the destruction of private and public property. There were usually instances of killing and torture of disobedient slaves.

Sports Nutrition Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Sports Nutrition - Essay Example The sports enhancing drugs helps the athletes to enhance physically, increase their body mass, improve strength, aggressiveness, and endurance. These improve performance and helps athletes to recover quickly from injuries. These sports enhancing drugs lead to negative physical side effects, which cause serious medical issues. They may result in men losing their hair, acne, reduced sex drive, sterility, heart diseases and cancer while in ladies growth of facial hair and deepening of the voice experienced. Therefore, in as much as they lead to gaining of the edge in competitiveness, they may affect the athlete’s overall health and other long-term effects including addictiveness (Shore, 2008). As a result of the above, I can never recommend such supplements to an athlete. Anabolic steroids have synthetic molecules; its source is the natural hormone testosterone. Testosterone influences the building effects on the human body including muscle mass and strength, growing of facial hair and deepening of the voice. These drugs have been banned, but athletes still use them secretly, and this is why an anti doping test was introduced to discover those who have used them. Performance enhancing drugs may lead to off-field trouble and injury including unusual anger, which could lead to suspension (Shore, 2008). Androstenedione is a steroid hormone that increases production of testosterone and estradiol in both men and women, and adrenal glands, ovaries and testes produce it. It allows athletes to train harder, increase energy, keep the red blood cells and enhances recovery, but its use as a performance-enhancing drug is illegal because it is among the controlled substances and a banned substance by the National Collegiate Athletic association. A scientific research shows that they are converted to estrogen they do not increase testosterone, and it does not strengthen the user’s muscles. In men, it causes acne, reduced sperm production, shrinking of the testicles and

Summaries of two articles Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Summaries of two articles - Essay Example The major influence on student learning and academic achievement are the children’s exposure to the quality of schools and teachers. A test based on the production function models was carried out on the quality of teachers and schools to explain their variance to a large extent on academic achievement rather than characteristics such as age, socioeconomic status and sex over which schools have little or no control over. As a result of the tests, governments have a responsibility to invest in quality learning levels by identifying the goods and services such as library resources, audiovisual equipment, different contacts and homework required and investing in them. Government resources on quality learning are weak and schools have control, but characters that the schools have little control such as preschool measures and out-of-school measures are the major effects on quality learning by schools(Little & Andy 168). Students from high income countries such as US practice preschool measures not influenced by the government or school control compared to low income countries which spend a lot of money on similar academic learning. Academic learning is of quality when it influences social achievement and students are not controlled by schools given their characteristics. The second article is on the importance of teaching as a career to first time tutors. It is necessary for any individual with an inspiration to become a teacher or enhance his or her teaching career to make an informed decision base. First time teaching requires proper understanding of the subject matter and the ability to recognize the learning needs of the students and, therefore, be able to engage them mutually according to their different learning capabilities in order to provide solutions for their success attainment and education progression. However, teaching poses numerous challenges for the first time teachers and, therefore, first time tutors should possess critical

What is the Ideal Job Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

What is the Ideal Job - Essay Example In some organizations, the employee is forced to work independently and is unable to build social connections with others in their environment. The high level of independent demands, such as meeting short deadlines, do not give the employee any free time to find out about their colleagues’ lives, desires, principles or values. An ideal job has the manager making efforts to build more teamwork and builds opportunities for group meetings so all employees can come to know one another. These efforts build better social belonging to help the employee gain colleague support, a very important emotional need to find the right amount of personal and professional happiness. The ideal job considers the importance of giving employees a sense of security. In many businesses, it is common to outsource to foreign countries as a means of saving costs. It is also common for businesses to try to merge job roles to reduce the number of workers currently on the payroll. Not all jobs are free of t he risk of job loss through layoffs and consolidation especially when staff members are having their jobs sent overseas to low-paying labor environments. An ideal job has the manager reinforcing that their job will not be lost to outsourcing or blending of job roles. Security should be provided by the manager in the form of bonus structures to improve motivation and this shows that the business will try hard to retain their employees. Providing security fulfills an emotional need in the employee and reduces anxiety or constant worry that they will suddenly be without a paycheck or forced to look for a different job. In ideal job works to build self-esteem and self-confidence in the employee. It is one where decision-making is shared through the entire organization and does not just come from high ranking officials.  

Marketing Definition Essay Example for Free

Marketing Definition Essay Definition The process of defining and subdividing a large homogenous market into clearly identifiable segments having similar needs, wants, or demand characteristics. Its objective is to design a marketing mix that precisely matches the expectations of customers in the targeted segment. Few companies are big enough to supply the needs of an entire market; most must breakdown the total demand into segments and choose those that the company is best equipped to handle. Four basic factors that affect market segmentation are (1) clear identification of the segment, (2) measurability of its effective size, (3) its accessibility through promotional efforts, and (4) its appropriateness to the policies and resources of the company. The four basic market segmentation-strategies are based on (a) behavioral (b) demographic, (c) psychographic, and (d) geographical differences. Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/market-segmentation.html#ixzz2ImOtX3b8 Do you think that it was a good segmentation for MM’s to develop a new version targeting adults? In observing how MM’s have changed over time from the addition of peanut butter and almonds to the changing of colors and sizes I think that was a great segmentation strategy to develop a new version targeting adults. The new line of MM’s is 55 percent larger in size and they come in colors that are appealing to adults in its design (Schiffman Kanuk, 2007). According to spokeswoman Joan Buyce of Masterfoods USA this creation is designed with adults in mind and It broadens our portfolio so theres something for everyone (MMs get mega-sized, 2012, p.1). Buyce also states that the new MMs are available in milk chocolate as well as peanut varieties and come with an adult-oriented color scheme which includes teal, beige, gold, maroon, brown and blue-gray (MMs get mega-sized, 2012). Due to the new line of MM’s including aspects that target adults I think that it is a great segmentation strategy because appealing aspects are included in the development of the new version. Discuss three basic types of research of design (exploratory, descriptive and casual). The three basic types of designs are exploratory, descriptive and casual research. In the explorative research there is systematic and flexible and allows the researcher to investigate desires (Marketing Research Design, 2012). Explorative research is also most commonly unstructured, informal research that is undertaken to gain background information about the general nature of the research problem (Marketing Research Design, 2012). While descriptive research describes and measure marketing phenomena at a point in time (Marketing Research Design, 2012). This type of research is classified as a cross sectional study, because it is a one-time measurement, which is established in market research, outnumbering longitudinal studies and casual studies (Marketing Research Design, 2012). Casual research is [continues]

Theory of Asymmetric Conflict

Theory of Asymmetric Conflict Within this assignment I will be critically evaluating the usefulness of Asymmetric conflict and also looking at the legitimacy of motivations for the use of political violence. To support this argument Northern Ireland will be used as the main case study within this assignment. Firstly I will be defining what is meant by asymmetric violence. The majority of conflicts that happen within the modern world are not between states, but rather between contesting groups that are within states, or between combatants and existing states. Within (Aggestam,2002) book, he suggests that these types of conflicts can often be classified as asymmetric because the stronger party, frequently a state authority, is able to draw upon a various number of power resources that widens its range of strategies in conflict. Whereas, on the other hand non-state actors are much more restrained and limited in the options that they have. Aggestam, also reported that there is an imbalance in the available means to wage conflict and the ability to do so, In the levels of losses that can be sustained, or the resources to sustain a prolonged conflict. A good example of this would be the forces that surrounded the conflict within Northern Ireland which emerged in the late 1960s, which widely became known as troubles, this resulted in the deaths of more than 3,600 people. Within recent years Asymmetric conflict has grown into prominence and use while there still remains no universal agreement as to their meaning. The term asymmetric warfare has been used in the context of new terrorism to refer to non-state forces using unconventional and unpredictable acts of political violence against states. (Martin, 2006, pp. 270-271). Asymmetric conflicts that happen between state and non-state actors does not just relate to military resources. (Mitchell, 1991) highlights the importance of asymmetry when determining the conflict that is happening. These typically include lack of access to legal redress or legitimate political representation. In asymmetric conflict, groups can usually find themselves without effective access to the political system, the reason for this is that historically they might have been deliberately marginalized within the state; this was the case of the catholic minority population in Northern Ireland. States often have and use the power to construct and structure notions of legitimacy and to enforce state legitimacy through dominant discourses and political and legal processes. However challenges to the state from members of non-state groups often begin from a presumption of illegitimacy, in the groups interest, legitimacy, this becomes a kind of moral judgment that contributes to the asymmetry of conflict. (Paul, 1994) points out that weak states (Or weak groups) may often begin conflict, especially when they believe that the specific situation will in somewhat stay the same or progress into something worse if they do not take action. Terrorism has often been viewed as the weapon of the weak that is directed at a stronger adversary. the perceptions of a group that believes that there is great injustice against them, or even that their continued existence is threatened and may be in danger can often provide the weaker group with the sufficient resolve to battle against the stronger power, (Mack, 1975) states his research around Vietnam, he says that where a weaker group of indigenous insurgents proved successful in defeating the military forces, firstly in France and then the USA, this highlights just how important the beliefs of the non-state actors are in determining the resolve of combatants. Both France and the USA were unable to marshal sufficient domestic support for the continued commitment that would have been necessary to secure a military victory. (Mitchell, 1991) agrees with Aggestam, in highlighting the importance of perception in understanding what constitutes asymmetry. In conflict situation, it is possible for both sides to believe that they suffer from structural weakness. (Rouhan and Fiske, 1995) point out a great example of this, the example is that Israel considers itself weak against the Arab world, but the Palestinians see themselves as less powerful against Israel. This is described as survivability. Macks assertion that it is the relationship between the belligerents that is the key factor in terms of asymmetry, (Mack, 1975, p.81) looks at the views of combatants and how they are changed by others, he also looks at how relationships are altered to the point where overt conflict can end, or at least be transformed. However one answer is obviously clear in that a victory for one side over the other does not necessarily mean a victory for the b est equipped army or state. However, there are other answers; these include various forms of mediation, resolution, negotiation or transformation of the conflict to a point where agreement can be reached between the contesting groups. (Ruane and Todd, 2007) said while it has been suggested that, historically, symmetric conflicts may have leant themselves to a greater openness to mediation, it is clear that asymmetric conflicts can also be brought to negotiation under certain conditions. (Quinn et al, 2006) and (Mitchell, 1991) both argue that once the parties involved have both agreed to come to the negotiating table, asymmetry offers a distinct advantage because the same promises and commitments do not have to be made to different groups, as a result of this, instead, different rewards and benefits can be offered, a factor that prevents further conflict from taking place over the same goods or resources. (Quinn et al, 2006) argues that, although the stronger party has the ability t o take action against the weaker enemy, this may provoke an extreme reaction and end up starting a new round of conflict. This in itself can act as a deterrent. However when the stronger party enters the negotiations and agrees to change and compromise, this can move the peace process along quickly because all recognise they are making concessions from a position of strength. (Aggestam, 2002) says that for a weaker party, negotiations can become attractive, this is due to the possible involvement of outside forces, thus leading to international intervention that in turn may guarantee legal regulation and legitimacy for their position. Looking at (Zartman, 2003) idea of the mutually hurting stalemate , he believes that when this moment is finally reached, the parties that are involved view the conflict as ripe, as a result of this they put out feelers as to the possibility of an accord. Once both negotiations begin, both asymmetric and symmetric conflicts face a number of problems. (Aggestam, 2002) points out that the resulting agreement of peace might be intentionally ambiguous, in order to ensure that the parties sign up for the new settlement. This was certainly the case for Northern Ireland where the agreement was interpreted very differently by all the major parties that were involved. As Aggestam stated, however this may in turn open up a host of new disagreements as actors argue about interpretation and implementation, for example, such as the demands by the unionist within Northern Ireland for disarming republican paramilitaries before agreed political structures could be set within place and action. While looking at Northern Ireland it is possible to conceptualize the entire history of this countrys state as one of asymmetric conflict. Northern Ireland was contested from its formation, and the outcome of this it created a result of the 1920 Government of Ireland Act following negotiations after a war of independence in Ireland. This itself is seen an asymmetric conflict. However as a result of this, it led to the partition of the Island, Leaving Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom. The minority of the Catholic nationalist that remained within Northern Ireland complained that the new set-up was marked by discrimination in employment, a partial distribution of resources such as housing, and a number of inequalities in relation to electoral practice and the organization of the security forces. This served to alienate the minority from the state whose legitimacy they already denied. However (Mack, 1975) has little problem labelling the conflict within Northern Ireland as asymm etric. Mack saw the parties as the powerful and well-equipped British Army and the smaller insurgent republican force. However (Mitchell,1991) views of the conflict detected structural asymmetry in terms of access, with nationalists as victims of asymmetric access, where adversaries are likely to have very different abilities to voice their concerns and have them dealt with. When looking at the conflict that was happening within Northern Ireland a number of asymmetric factors can be detected. Most obvious, in terms of military might, were the resources of the British state, which vastly outranked and outgunned those of the republican paramilitaries. From what is stated above it is clearly identifiable that the conflict within Northern Ireland to be labelled as asymmetric, whereby the weaker combatants, in this case paramilitary organization used non-traditional strategies to engage a stronger opponent, the British state. In order for the peace process in Ireland to succeed all major actors needed to be brought to the point where a minimal but broad consensus among political leaders and the population at large about the desirability of common future could be constructed. The peace process within Northern Ireland was a product of recognition of realities by all participants in the conflict. For Irish republicans this involved acknowledgement that the goal of a united Ireland was unattainable in the short or medium terms and that there was a scant utility in a campaign of violence designed to sicken the brits into withdrawal from Northern Ireland. When looking at the asymmetric conflict theory and (Mack, 1975) article why big nation lose small wars, his analysis focused mostly on the French and their defeat in Algeria and the U.S defeat in Vietnam, Asymmetry of the power to win war was systematically and inversely related to the political vulnerability of each respective actor. However Macks arguments begin with power asymmetry and this shows how power asymmetry generally lead to interest asymmetry, this is where weak actors are perfectly interested because their very survival is at stake, strong actors marginally interested because their survival is in no way threatened. However interest asymmetry essentially leads to a form of inverse political vulnerability, this is because weak actors are resolute and they do not suffer politically from military setbacks, whereas strong actors become vulnerable to even the most minor setback as the war is carried on. Therefore Macks analysis primarily considers the motivations of states or quasi-states as actors and how structural relationships implies other asymmetries which aggregate to explain the outcomes, this means that weak actors will win whenever an asymmetric conflict lasts longer than expected, this was the case for the United states losing the Vietnam war because the North Vietnamese where fanatically committed to victory and the U.S was not. This resulted in the conflict lasting far beyond what the United States anticipated. Although Macks theory of asymmetric conflict is a powerful piece of analysis, it leads to an unresolved question and that is, why dont strong actors lose asymmetric conflicts more often than they do. When looking at Power, threat and intensity around the Arab-Israeli conflict and considering asymmetry, it is clear that from the findings within (Rouhana and Fiske, 1995) journal that the power relation between the Jewish and Arab communities in Israel are asymmetric by consensus, as both attribute more power to the Jewish community. As for asymmetry of power it is clear than both groups involved agree that the Jewish population has more power. However the findings within the Journal specifically state that there are implications for the future of the relationship between Israel and its Arab citizens, particularly after the recent agreements between Israel and the Palestinians. This is due to the fact that Israel is a state with two groups of citizens, both of them aware that only one group, the Jewish majority, Asymmetrically controls institutional power, However this is likely to be challenged by the minority, for example, the stronger that the minority grows or becomes, demographically, economically and politically the more likely that it will become to challenge the asymmetric power distribution. Even in drastically asymmetric institution power relations between the groups in conflict, not all types of power are asymmetric; power asymmetry is better measured by referring to types of power rather than just one type of power. However if a dynamic Palestinian polity emerges within the West bank and Gaza, it could actually be strengthened by a heightened sense of intensity of conflict over power, as it states within the journal the Jewish majority shows a profound sense of threat, some of which originates in the existence of the Arab minority itself, except for common concern over Israeli democracy. However the two groups do not seem to share any sources of reassurance or threat and this then brings to the question of shared identity between the two groups who are both citizens of the same state. (Smooha, 1984, 1992) specifically argues that the Arabs that are in Israel have developed a strong component of Israeli identity. (Rouhana, 1993) postulates that the Israeli component of the Arabs collective identity does not include a sense of belonging towards the state. This develops a sense of attachment because the uninational superstructure excludes their identity, this might be the case that the absence of identity is related to the perception of gross asymmetry in the distribution of institutional power, if only one group, the majority is perceived to control institutional power and the minority is somehow perceived to be excluded from the power centres, including determining the character of the state, distribution of political repre sentation and economic power, then it is possible that genuine power sharing is required as a prior condition for the development of collective identity. As we all know today Asymmetric wars are being used and waged for reasons such as political violence, religious, ethnic, economical and criminal reasons. However terrorism as asymmetric warfare threatens global security, suicide bombings are a severely dangerous part of asymmetrical warfare and that everything should be done in order to stop the attacks from happening. It could be said that all nations must unite and support each other in the global war of terrorism; however some countries are taking advantage of the attacks within other countries to settle their personal scores with the weaker adversaries. Today Israel has labelled Palestinian struggle for statehood as terrorism, Asymmetrical warfare and even terrorism cannot be eradicated by crushing the legitimate rights of aggressive people, Extremists groups for example the Al-Qaeda will keep finding a way to sprout up and will no doubt continue their asymmetrical struggles till justice is done. There are many ways that conflicts can be defined as asymmetric; these include differentiated access to material resources, access to political decision-making processes or the legal structure of the state. However it is of course possible to define recent history of conflicts in Northern Ireland in this way. However the development of the peace process highlighted an increase in recognition by both state and non-state actors that stalemate had emerged and that military victory or defeat for either side did not seem probable. However the key points that emerged from Northern Ireland is the potential for manipulation or perception during pea ce negotiations, constructive ambiguity in the process allowed republican and unionist leaderships to offer different rewards to their communities. In this sense, Aggestams argument that an asymmetric conflict is resolvable when different rewards can be offered to each side emphasises on parity of esteem for the national aspirations and identities of unionists and Irish nationalists created a space in which self determination could appear to be realized without altering the status of Northern Ireland. However it is the adjustment to the perception of a conflict bases on symmetry of need, rather than resources and military will, that fostered a peace agreement in what was previously thought to be an intractable situation. References: Aggestam, K. (2002). Mediating Conflict. Mediterranean Politics. 7 (1), 69-91. Mack, A. (1975). Why big nations lose small wars:. The politics of asymmetric conflict. world politics, 27 (2), 175-200. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.libaccess.hud.ac.uk/stable/2009880?pq-origsite=summon. McAuley, J., McGlynn, C., Tonge, J. (2008). Conflict resolution in asymmetric and symmetric situations: Northern Ireland as a case study in. Dynamics of asymmetric conflict, 10 , 88-102. doi: 10.1080/17467580802284712. Mitchell, C.R. (1991). Classifying conflicts. Asymmetry and resolution. 518 , 23-38. Paul, T.V. (1994). Asymmetric conflicts: war initiation by weaker powers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Quinn, D., Wilkenfeld, J., Smarick, K., Asal, A. (2006). Power play: Mediation in symmetric and asymmetric international crises.. International interactions. 32 , 441-470. Rouhan, N. Fiske, S. (1995). Perception of power, threat and conflict intensity in asymmetric intergroup conflict:. Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel. Journal of conflict resolution, 39 (1), 49-81. doi: 10.1177/0022002795039001003.

Indian Retail market

Indian Retail market The Indian Retail market is growing with a rapid pace. India is the most eye-catching retail market today with abundance of opportunities. We can notice that global market have acquisitively eyed Indias retail market over a long period, so it arrive as no shocking news, when Marks Spencer took another deal in April 2008 with Indias multinational company i.e. Reliance Industries Limited. The United Kingdom food and clothing chain Giant Marks Spencer teamed up with Indias multinational company Reliance Industries in broadcasting the news to open 50 stores over the next five years durations. The motivation behind this was clear that India has the second largest inhabitants in the world, where as more than half of it inhabitants is beneath 25 years old, while its economy has expanded at over 8.5% annually since 2003 meaning there is a rapidly escalating middle class with money to spend(Anon, 2008). Initially Marks Spencer had tied up with the Planet Retail but unsatisfied with the pace of expansion with Planet Retail. Stores were too sma ll and price of the product were expensive, but Planet Retail will remain franchisee of Marks Spencer (Anon, 2008). At present Marks and Spencer, has 14 franchised stores running in India, which apply to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), the government agency that approves investments in the country from abroad, to own a 51% stake in the joint venture, Marks and Spencer Reliance Pvt. Ltd (Roy, 2008). Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath recently observed that luxury is not a product but an emotion and it has both aspirers and admirers. India will engage the world. In the last three months alone, over $400 million investment has been made in India. This shows that the world is bullish about India and its consumers, he said. Currently, 100 per cent foreign direct investment is allowed in wholesale trade, but only 51 per cent in single brand outlets (Menon, 2008). Since Marks Spencer owns 51% and rest of the share i.e.49% are owned by Reliance Industries Limited. Both the conglomerate companies will invest  £29million in the joint venture. According to Sir Stuart Rose Marks Spencers chief executive, Strategy is to achieve 15%-20% of Marks Spences sales from its international business within the next five years. Knocking the door of one of the fastest growing consumer market in the world. The nation is expecting that middle class generation will increase by 350 million by 2015(Hall, 2008). The new stores will be called as seamless malls gigantic shops within shops and separate boutiques mainly selling home ware and clothes in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and other major metropolitan hubs (Anon, 2008). Through strength of technology, logistics and property reliance has become the leading player in retail market. Joint venture not only enhances both the parties but also the consumers. The goods and services will be available in economical rates, due to this purchasing power of individual will increases. Size of stores will be spread around in 20,000 sq ft, as size is big employees requirement will be more in order to provide quality services to consumers. Customer can collect their favourite brand by shopping less than one roof. Branded household and garments will be available for consumer at cheaper rate. Thus joint venture between two the multinational companies will not only enhances profit margin of their venture but also economy and satisfying the people through providing good quality services as well as creating employment opportunities.