The Himalayas Along Chinas Southwestern Frontier With India Are The Wo

The Himalayas along China's southwestern frontier with India are the world's tallest mountains. China's greatest river, the Yangtze, is the world's fourth longest. The Taklimakan Desert, in western Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, is one of the driest spots on Earth. The area of loessic soil (fine, siltlike soil created by wind action in dry regions) in Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces is probably more extensive than in any other place. China has a great wealth of mineral and natural resources. Reserves of coal, petroleum, iron ore, tungsten, tin, bauxite, copper, limestone, and many other minerals needed in modern industry are abundant. Used in domestic manufacturing and exported to obtain money, these resources provide China with a solid foundation for rapid industrial growth. Like the United States, China is located in the mid-latitudes. On the east and south China faces major arms of the Pacific Ocean. Consequently, eastern China especially the southeastern coast is humid and has generally mild winters compared to the rest of the country. High mountains close off the west, however, and much of the western two thirds of the country is relatively dry and isolated. Traditionally, China's western regions have been sparsely populated, largely by minority peoples such as Tibetans, Uygurs, and MongoliansChina has the largest population of any country: 1,133,682,501 people were counted during the census taken in 1990 . This population had grown rapidly in recent times, expanding by approximately 15 million each year, an increase equal to the total population of Australia. In an effort to reduce the rate of population growth, the Chinese government since 1978 has promoted the one-child family among the Han. (All married couples are urged to have only one child.) Before the Communist Revolution, a number of religious and philosophical systems were practiced in China. Traditionally Taoism and Confucianism provided ethical guides to the proper behavior of individuals and officials. Both of these systems originated in China during the so-called Golden Age of Chinese thought, several centuries before the beginning of the Christian era. Taoism sought to promote the inner peace of individuals and harmony with their surroundings. Confucianism, based on the teachings and writings of the philosopher Confucius, is an ethical system that sought to teach the proper way for all people to behave in society. Ea ch relationship husband-wife, parents-children, ruler-subjects involved a set of obligations which, if upheld, would lead to a just and harmonious society. Following his teachings would also promote a stable, lasting government (see Confucius). Buddhism, which came to China from India as early as the 1st century AD, was a more conventional religion. Its followers attended occasional services, practiced rituals, and supported a temple on a regular basis. It has been estimated that more than 68 million Chinese still consider themselves Buddhists, though it is unlikely that they practice the religion regularly (see Buddhism). Prior to 1949, practices that may best be called folk religions were common throughout China. Although they incorporated elements of Buddhism and, especially, Taoism, these religions were usually local, often based on local gods, and served the local people.. By 1945, however, it was estimated that only 20 percent of China's people could read and write.Since the Communists came to power in 1949 literacy has risen rapidly. Today it is estimated that 76 percent of adults are literate. Educational policy, however, has varied considerably. Generally, a primary school education has been made available to alm ost everyone, and about 40 percent of young people are able to attend middle school. This reflects a belief that basic knowledge is essential to rural development and economic progress. Education at the college or university level is difficult to obtain, however. The average primary school student has about one chance in 145 of enrolling in a university or college. More and more of China's young people are finishing high school, but no more than 2 to 3 percent of high school graduates go on to the next level. Policies on college admission have changed from time to time, and the basis of selection is not always clear. China's traditional economy was based on rural activities and farm production. Ownership of land was the main form of wealth, and large holdings often belonged to absentee landlords who lived

Essay on Macbeth Tragedy

Essay on Macbeth Tragedy Essay on Macbeth Tragedy The Death Of Ned Kelly By John Manifold Ned Kelly fought the rich men in country and in town; Ned Kelly fought the troopers until they ran him down; He thought that he had fooled them, for he was hard to find, But he rode into Glenrowan with the troopers close behind. ‘Come out of that, Ned Kelly,’ the head zarucker calls, ‘come out and leave your shelter, or we’ll shoot it full of holes.’ ‘If you take me,’ says Kelly, ‘that’s not the speech to use; I’ve lived to spite your order, I’ll die the way I choose!† ‘Come out of that, Ned Kelly, you done a lawless thing : You robbed and fought the squatters, Ned Kelly, you must swing.’ ‘If those who rob,’ says Kelly, ‘are all condemned to die, You had better hang the squatters; they’ve stolen more than I.† ‘You’d best come out, Ned Kelly, you done the government wrong, For you held up the coaches that bring the gold along.’ ‘Go tell your boss,’ says Kelly, ‘who lets the rich go free, That your bloody rich man’s government will never govern me.’ ‘You talk all right, Ned Kelly, your tongue is slick, I own; But I have men to help me and you are all alone.’ They burned the roof above him; they fired the walls about, And head to foot in armour Ned Kelly stumbled out. Although his guns were empty he took them by surprise; He wore an iron breastplate and armour on his thighs. Although his guns were empty he made them turn and flee, But one came in behind him and shot him in the knee. And so they

A Dirty Job Chapter 1

For when the Gods made man, They kept immortality for themselves. Fill your belly. Day and night make merry, Let Days be full of joy. Love the child that holds your hand. Let your wife delight in your embrace. For these alone are the concerns of man. – The Epic of Gilgamesh 1 BECAUSE I COULD NOT STOP FOR DEATH – HE KINDLY STOPPED FOR ME – Charlie Asher walked the earth like an ant walks on the surface of water, as if the slightest misstep might send him plummeting through the surface to be sucked to the depths below. Blessed with the Beta Male imagination, he spent much of his life squinting into the future so he might spot ways in which the world was conspiring to kill him – him; his wife, Rachel; and now, newborn Sophie. But despite his attention, his paranoia, his ceaseless fretting from the moment Rachel peed a blue stripe on the pregnancy stick to the time they wheeled her into recovery at St. Francis Memorial, Death slipped in. â€Å"She’s not breathing,† Charlie said. â€Å"She’s breathing fine,† Rachel said, patting the baby’s back. â€Å"Do you want to hold her?† Charlie had held baby Sophie for a few seconds earlier in the day, and had handed her quickly to a nurse insisting that someone more qualified than he do some finger and toe counting. He’d done it twice and kept coming up with twenty-one. â€Å"They act like that’s all there is to it. Like if the kid has the minimum ten fingers and ten toes it’s all going to be fine. What if there are extras? Huh? Extra-credit fingers? What if the kid has a tail?† (Charlie was sure he’d spotted a tail in the six-month sonogram. Umbilical indeed! He’d kept a hard copy.) â€Å"She doesn’t have a tail, Mr. Asher,† the nurse explained. â€Å"And it’s ten and ten, we’ve all checked. Perhaps you should go home and get some rest.† â€Å"I’ll still love her, even with her extra finger.† â€Å"She’s perfectly normal.† â€Å"Or toe.† â€Å"We really do know what we’re doing, Mr. Asher. She’s a beautiful, healthy baby girl.† â€Å"Or a tail.† The nurse sighed. She was short, wide, and had a tattoo of a snake up her right calf that showed through her white nurse stockings. She spent four hours of every workday massaging preemie babies, her hands threaded through ports in a Lucite incubator, like she was handling a radioactive spark in there. She talked to them, coaxed them, told them how special they were, and felt their hearts fluttering in chests no bigger than a balled-up pair of sweat socks. She cried over every one, and believed that her tears and touch poured a bit of her own life into the tiny bodies, which was just fine with her. She could spare it. She had been a neonatal nurse for twenty years and had never so much as raised her voice to a new father. â€Å"There’s no goddamn tail, you doofus! Look!† She pulled down the blanket and aimed baby Sophie’s bottom at him like she might unleash a fusillade of weapons-grade poopage such as the guileless Beta Male had never seen. Charlie jumped back – a lean and nimble thirty, he was – then, once he realized that the baby wasn’t loaded, he straightened the lapels on his tweed jacket in a gesture of righteous indignation. â€Å"You could have removed her tail in the delivery room and we’d never know.† He didn’t know. He’d been asked to leave the delivery room, first by the ob-gyn and finally by Rachel. (â€Å"Him or me,† Rachel said. â€Å"One of us has to go.†) In Rachel’s room, Charlie said: â€Å"If they removed her tail, I want it. She’ll want it when she gets older.† â€Å"Sophie, your Papa isn’t really insane. He just hasn’t slept for a couple of days.† â€Å"She’s looking at me,† Charlie said. â€Å"She’s looking at me like I blew her college money at the track and now she’s going to have to turn tricks to get her MBA.† Rachel took his hand. â€Å"Honey, I don’t think her eyes can even focus this early, and besides, she’s a little young to start worrying about her turning tricks to get her MFA.† â€Å"MBA,† Charlie corrected. â€Å"They start very young these days. By the time I figure out how to get to the track, she could be old enough. God, your parents are going to hate me.† â€Å"And that would be different how?† â€Å"New reasons, that’s how. Now I’ve made their granddaughter a shiksa.† â€Å"She’s not a shiksa, Charlie. We’ve been through this. She’s my daughter, so she’s as Jewish as I am.† Charlie went down on one knee next to the bed and took one of Sophie’s tiny hands between his fingers. â€Å"Daddy’s sorry he made you a shiksa.† He put his head down, buried his face in the crook where the baby met Rachel’s side. Rachel traced his hairline with her fingernail, describing a tight U-turn around his narrow forehead. â€Å"You need to go home and get some sleep.† Charlie mumbled something into the covers. When he looked up there were tears in his eyes. â€Å"She feels warm.† â€Å"She is warm. She’s supposed to be. It’s a mammal thing. Goes with the breast-feeding. Why are you crying?† â€Å"You guys are so beautiful.† He began arranging Rachel’s dark hair across the pillow, brought a long lock down over Sophie’s head, and started styling it into a baby hairpiece. â€Å"It will be okay if she can’t grow hair. There was that angry Irish singer who didn’t have any hair and she was attractive. If we had her tail we could transplant plugs from that.† â€Å"Charlie! Go home!† â€Å"Your parents will blame me. Their bald shiksa granddaughter turning tricks and getting a business degree – it will be all my fault.† Rachel grabbed the buzzer from the blanket and held it up like it was wired to a bomb. â€Å"Charlie, if you don’t go home and get some sleep right now, I swear I’ll buzz the nurse and have her throw you out.† She sounded stern, but she was smiling. Charlie liked looking at her smile, always had; it felt like approval and permission at the same time. Permission to be Charlie Asher. â€Å"Okay, I’ll go.† He reached to feel her forehead. â€Å"Do you have a fever? You look tired.† â€Å"I just gave birth, you squirrel!† â€Å"I’m just concerned about you.† He was not a squirrel. She was blaming him for Sophie’s tail, that’s why she’d said squirrel, and not doofus like everyone else. â€Å"Sweetie, go. Now. So I can get some rest.† Charlie fluffed her pillows, checked her water pitcher, tucked in the blankets, kissed her forehead, kissed the baby’s head, fluffed the baby, then started to rearrange the flowers that his mother had sent, moving the big stargazer lily in the front, accenting it with a spray of baby’s breath – â€Å"Charlie!† â€Å"I’m going. Jeez.† He checked the room, one last time, then backed toward the door. â€Å"Can I bring you anything from home?† â€Å"I’ll be fine. The ready kit you packed covered everything, I think. In fact, I may not even need the fire extinguisher.† â€Å"Better to have it and not need it, than to need it – â€Å" â€Å"Go! I’ll get some rest, the doctor will check Sophie out, and we’ll take her home in the morning.† â€Å"That seems soon.† â€Å"It’s standard.† â€Å"Should I bring more propane for the camp stove?† â€Å"We’ll try to make it last.† â€Å"But – â€Å" Rachel held up the buzzer, as if her demands were not met, the consequences could be dire. â€Å"Love you,† she said. â€Å"Love you, too,† Charlie said. â€Å"Both of you.† â€Å"Bye, Daddy.† Rachel puppeted Sophie’s little hand in a wave. Charlie felt a lump rising in his throat. No one had ever called him Daddy before, not even a puppet. (He had once asked Rachel, â€Å"Who’s your daddy?† during sex, to which she had replied, â€Å"Saul Goldstein,† thus rendering him impotent for a week and raising all kinds of issues that he didn’t really like to think about.) He backed out of the room, palming the door shut as he went, then headed down the hall and past the desk where the neonatal nurse with the snake tattoo gave him a sideways smile as he went by. Charlie drove a six-year-old minivan that he’d inherited from his father, along with the thrift store and the building that housed it. The minivan always smelled faintly of dust, mothballs, and body odor, despite a forest of smell-good Christmas trees that Charlie had hung from every hook, knob, and protrusion. He opened the car door and the odor of the unwanted – the wares of the thrift-store owner – washed over him. Before he even had the key in the ignition, he noticed the Sarah McLachlan CD lying on the passenger seat. Well, Rachel was going to miss that. It was her favorite CD and there she was, recovering without it, and he could not have that. Charlie grabbed the CD, locked the van, and headed back up to Rachel’s room. To his relief, the nurse had stepped away from the desk so he didn’t have to endure her frosty stare of accusation, or what he guessed would be her frosty stare of accusation. He’d mentally prepared a short speech about how being a good husband and father included anticipating the wants and needs of his wife and that included bringing her music – well, he could use the speech on the way out if she gave him the frosty stare. He opened the door to Rachel’s room slowly so as not to startle her – anticipating her warm smile of disapproval, but instead she appeared to be asleep and there was a very tall black man dressed in mint green standing next to her bed. â€Å"What are you doing here?† The man in mint green turned, startled. â€Å"You can see me?† He gestured to his chocolate-brown tie, and Charlie was reminded, just for a second, of those thin mints they put on the pillow in nicer hotels. â€Å"Of course I can see you. What are you doing here?† Charlie moved to Rachel’s bedside, putting himself between the stranger and his family. Baby Sophie seemed fascinated by the tall black man. â€Å"This is not good,† said Mint Green. â€Å"You’re in the wrong room,† Charlie said. â€Å"You get out of here.† Charlie reached behind and patted Rachel’s hand. â€Å"This is really, really not good.† â€Å"Sir, my wife is trying to sleep and you’re in the wrong room. Now please go before – â€Å" â€Å"She’s not sleeping,† said Mint Green. His voice was soft, and a little Southern. â€Å"I’m sorry.† Charlie turned to look down at Rachel, expecting to see her smile, hear her tell him to calm down, but her eyes were closed and her head had lolled off the pillow. â€Å"Honey?† Charlie dropped the CD he was carrying and shook her gently. â€Å"Honey?† Baby Sophie began to cry. Charlie felt Rachel’s forehead, took her by the shoulders, and shook her. â€Å"Honey, wake up. Rachel.† He put his ear to her heart and heard nothing. â€Å"Nurse!† Charlie scrambled across the bed to grab the buzzer that had slipped from Rachel’s hand and lay on the blanket. â€Å"Nurse!† He pounded the button and turned to look at the man in mint green. â€Å"What happened†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He was gone. Charlie ran into the hall, but no one was out there. â€Å"Nurse!† Twenty seconds later the nurse with the snake tattoo arrived, followed in another thirty seconds by a resuscitation team with a crash cart. There was nothing they could do. A Dirty Job Chapter 1 For when the Gods made man, They kept immortality for themselves. Fill your belly. Day and night make merry, Let Days be full of joy. Love the child that holds your hand. Let your wife delight in your embrace. For these alone are the concerns of man. – The Epic of Gilgamesh 1 BECAUSE I COULD NOT STOP FOR DEATH – HE KINDLY STOPPED FOR ME – Charlie Asher walked the earth like an ant walks on the surface of water, as if the slightest misstep might send him plummeting through the surface to be sucked to the depths below. Blessed with the Beta Male imagination, he spent much of his life squinting into the future so he might spot ways in which the world was conspiring to kill him – him; his wife, Rachel; and now, newborn Sophie. But despite his attention, his paranoia, his ceaseless fretting from the moment Rachel peed a blue stripe on the pregnancy stick to the time they wheeled her into recovery at St. Francis Memorial, Death slipped in. â€Å"She’s not breathing,† Charlie said. â€Å"She’s breathing fine,† Rachel said, patting the baby’s back. â€Å"Do you want to hold her?† Charlie had held baby Sophie for a few seconds earlier in the day, and had handed her quickly to a nurse insisting that someone more qualified than he do some finger and toe counting. He’d done it twice and kept coming up with twenty-one. â€Å"They act like that’s all there is to it. Like if the kid has the minimum ten fingers and ten toes it’s all going to be fine. What if there are extras? Huh? Extra-credit fingers? What if the kid has a tail?† (Charlie was sure he’d spotted a tail in the six-month sonogram. Umbilical indeed! He’d kept a hard copy.) â€Å"She doesn’t have a tail, Mr. Asher,† the nurse explained. â€Å"And it’s ten and ten, we’ve all checked. Perhaps you should go home and get some rest.† â€Å"I’ll still love her, even with her extra finger.† â€Å"She’s perfectly normal.† â€Å"Or toe.† â€Å"We really do know what we’re doing, Mr. Asher. She’s a beautiful, healthy baby girl.† â€Å"Or a tail.† The nurse sighed. She was short, wide, and had a tattoo of a snake up her right calf that showed through her white nurse stockings. She spent four hours of every workday massaging preemie babies, her hands threaded through ports in a Lucite incubator, like she was handling a radioactive spark in there. She talked to them, coaxed them, told them how special they were, and felt their hearts fluttering in chests no bigger than a balled-up pair of sweat socks. She cried over every one, and believed that her tears and touch poured a bit of her own life into the tiny bodies, which was just fine with her. She could spare it. She had been a neonatal nurse for twenty years and had never so much as raised her voice to a new father. â€Å"There’s no goddamn tail, you doofus! Look!† She pulled down the blanket and aimed baby Sophie’s bottom at him like she might unleash a fusillade of weapons-grade poopage such as the guileless Beta Male had never seen. Charlie jumped back – a lean and nimble thirty, he was – then, once he realized that the baby wasn’t loaded, he straightened the lapels on his tweed jacket in a gesture of righteous indignation. â€Å"You could have removed her tail in the delivery room and we’d never know.† He didn’t know. He’d been asked to leave the delivery room, first by the ob-gyn and finally by Rachel. (â€Å"Him or me,† Rachel said. â€Å"One of us has to go.†) In Rachel’s room, Charlie said: â€Å"If they removed her tail, I want it. She’ll want it when she gets older.† â€Å"Sophie, your Papa isn’t really insane. He just hasn’t slept for a couple of days.† â€Å"She’s looking at me,† Charlie said. â€Å"She’s looking at me like I blew her college money at the track and now she’s going to have to turn tricks to get her MBA.† Rachel took his hand. â€Å"Honey, I don’t think her eyes can even focus this early, and besides, she’s a little young to start worrying about her turning tricks to get her MFA.† â€Å"MBA,† Charlie corrected. â€Å"They start very young these days. By the time I figure out how to get to the track, she could be old enough. God, your parents are going to hate me.† â€Å"And that would be different how?† â€Å"New reasons, that’s how. Now I’ve made their granddaughter a shiksa.† â€Å"She’s not a shiksa, Charlie. We’ve been through this. She’s my daughter, so she’s as Jewish as I am.† Charlie went down on one knee next to the bed and took one of Sophie’s tiny hands between his fingers. â€Å"Daddy’s sorry he made you a shiksa.† He put his head down, buried his face in the crook where the baby met Rachel’s side. Rachel traced his hairline with her fingernail, describing a tight U-turn around his narrow forehead. â€Å"You need to go home and get some sleep.† Charlie mumbled something into the covers. When he looked up there were tears in his eyes. â€Å"She feels warm.† â€Å"She is warm. She’s supposed to be. It’s a mammal thing. Goes with the breast-feeding. Why are you crying?† â€Å"You guys are so beautiful.† He began arranging Rachel’s dark hair across the pillow, brought a long lock down over Sophie’s head, and started styling it into a baby hairpiece. â€Å"It will be okay if she can’t grow hair. There was that angry Irish singer who didn’t have any hair and she was attractive. If we had her tail we could transplant plugs from that.† â€Å"Charlie! Go home!† â€Å"Your parents will blame me. Their bald shiksa granddaughter turning tricks and getting a business degree – it will be all my fault.† Rachel grabbed the buzzer from the blanket and held it up like it was wired to a bomb. â€Å"Charlie, if you don’t go home and get some sleep right now, I swear I’ll buzz the nurse and have her throw you out.† She sounded stern, but she was smiling. Charlie liked looking at her smile, always had; it felt like approval and permission at the same time. Permission to be Charlie Asher. â€Å"Okay, I’ll go.† He reached to feel her forehead. â€Å"Do you have a fever? You look tired.† â€Å"I just gave birth, you squirrel!† â€Å"I’m just concerned about you.† He was not a squirrel. She was blaming him for Sophie’s tail, that’s why she’d said squirrel, and not doofus like everyone else. â€Å"Sweetie, go. Now. So I can get some rest.† Charlie fluffed her pillows, checked her water pitcher, tucked in the blankets, kissed her forehead, kissed the baby’s head, fluffed the baby, then started to rearrange the flowers that his mother had sent, moving the big stargazer lily in the front, accenting it with a spray of baby’s breath – â€Å"Charlie!† â€Å"I’m going. Jeez.† He checked the room, one last time, then backed toward the door. â€Å"Can I bring you anything from home?† â€Å"I’ll be fine. The ready kit you packed covered everything, I think. In fact, I may not even need the fire extinguisher.† â€Å"Better to have it and not need it, than to need it – â€Å" â€Å"Go! I’ll get some rest, the doctor will check Sophie out, and we’ll take her home in the morning.† â€Å"That seems soon.† â€Å"It’s standard.† â€Å"Should I bring more propane for the camp stove?† â€Å"We’ll try to make it last.† â€Å"But – â€Å" Rachel held up the buzzer, as if her demands were not met, the consequences could be dire. â€Å"Love you,† she said. â€Å"Love you, too,† Charlie said. â€Å"Both of you.† â€Å"Bye, Daddy.† Rachel puppeted Sophie’s little hand in a wave. Charlie felt a lump rising in his throat. No one had ever called him Daddy before, not even a puppet. (He had once asked Rachel, â€Å"Who’s your daddy?† during sex, to which she had replied, â€Å"Saul Goldstein,† thus rendering him impotent for a week and raising all kinds of issues that he didn’t really like to think about.) He backed out of the room, palming the door shut as he went, then headed down the hall and past the desk where the neonatal nurse with the snake tattoo gave him a sideways smile as he went by. Charlie drove a six-year-old minivan that he’d inherited from his father, along with the thrift store and the building that housed it. The minivan always smelled faintly of dust, mothballs, and body odor, despite a forest of smell-good Christmas trees that Charlie had hung from every hook, knob, and protrusion. He opened the car door and the odor of the unwanted – the wares of the thrift-store owner – washed over him. Before he even had the key in the ignition, he noticed the Sarah McLachlan CD lying on the passenger seat. Well, Rachel was going to miss that. It was her favorite CD and there she was, recovering without it, and he could not have that. Charlie grabbed the CD, locked the van, and headed back up to Rachel’s room. To his relief, the nurse had stepped away from the desk so he didn’t have to endure her frosty stare of accusation, or what he guessed would be her frosty stare of accusation. He’d mentally prepared a short speech about how being a good husband and father included anticipating the wants and needs of his wife and that included bringing her music – well, he could use the speech on the way out if she gave him the frosty stare. He opened the door to Rachel’s room slowly so as not to startle her – anticipating her warm smile of disapproval, but instead she appeared to be asleep and there was a very tall black man dressed in mint green standing next to her bed. â€Å"What are you doing here?† The man in mint green turned, startled. â€Å"You can see me?† He gestured to his chocolate-brown tie, and Charlie was reminded, just for a second, of those thin mints they put on the pillow in nicer hotels. â€Å"Of course I can see you. What are you doing here?† Charlie moved to Rachel’s bedside, putting himself between the stranger and his family. Baby Sophie seemed fascinated by the tall black man. â€Å"This is not good,† said Mint Green. â€Å"You’re in the wrong room,† Charlie said. â€Å"You get out of here.† Charlie reached behind and patted Rachel’s hand. â€Å"This is really, really not good.† â€Å"Sir, my wife is trying to sleep and you’re in the wrong room. Now please go before – â€Å" â€Å"She’s not sleeping,† said Mint Green. His voice was soft, and a little Southern. â€Å"I’m sorry.† Charlie turned to look down at Rachel, expecting to see her smile, hear her tell him to calm down, but her eyes were closed and her head had lolled off the pillow. â€Å"Honey?† Charlie dropped the CD he was carrying and shook her gently. â€Å"Honey?† Baby Sophie began to cry. Charlie felt Rachel’s forehead, took her by the shoulders, and shook her. â€Å"Honey, wake up. Rachel.† He put his ear to her heart and heard nothing. â€Å"Nurse!† Charlie scrambled across the bed to grab the buzzer that had slipped from Rachel’s hand and lay on the blanket. â€Å"Nurse!† He pounded the button and turned to look at the man in mint green. â€Å"What happened†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He was gone. Charlie ran into the hall, but no one was out there. â€Å"Nurse!† Twenty seconds later the nurse with the snake tattoo arrived, followed in another thirty seconds by a resuscitation team with a crash cart. There was nothing they could do.

Human Resources Management in Supporting Corporate Strategy Dissertation

Human Resources Management in Supporting Corporate Strategy - Dissertation Example man and operational risk in an organization 14 2.13Talent management 15 2.13.1Talent management in Abu Dhabi government 15 2.14Employee engagement 15 2.14.1 Culture Difference 16 2.15Total quality management in HRM 16 2.15.1TQM practice in UAE 17 Chapter 3 Methodology 19 3.1 Research Philosophy 19 3.2 Research Approach 21 3.3 Research Design 23 3.4 Data Collection Methods 24 3.5 Data Analysis 24 3.6 Limitations 25 Chapter 4 Findings and Analysis 26 4.1 Evaluation of the human resources system 26 4.2 Primary research findings 27 4.2.1 Analysis of the ethical questionnaire 27 4.2.2 Analysis Interview Questions Answers 30 4.3 Discussions 34 Chapter 5Conclusion& Recommendations 35 Chapter 6 Personal Reflections 37 References 40 Appendices 45 Research Proposal A 45 Interview Questions B 51 Interview Questions & Answers C 52 Online survey questions& Results D 59 Ethics Form E 71 List of Figures Figure 1 The number of respondents from different departments of Abu Dhabi 28 Figure 2The distri bution of the length of service of the respondent 28 Figure 3The responses of the respondents in response to the agreement of the Abu Dhabi vision 2030 29 Figure 4Ratings provided by the respondents with their concern about their respective departments 30 Chapter 1 Introduction Research Question What is the methodology that being utilized in the current HRM system of Abu Dhabi government entities and institutions? Is this methodology adequate to support Abu Dhabi business strategy in terms of recruiting and developing employees and managers? If yes, rationale support is needed. If not, rationalize it with evidence(s) and suggest solutions to improve the current methodology. Aim: The aim of this research to improve human resources practices in Abu Dhabi government entities that will support... The attainment of the prosperity and the generation of wealth has been the apex criterion of the government of Abu Dhabi and the Federation of the United Arab Emirates has highly relied on the people which it thinks to be the true wealth. For the purpose of the achievement of its role, federation of Abu Dhabi will be highly focusing on the achievement of its own comprehensive and multifaceted vision. The vision was targeted at the creation of a confident and security and also towards the establishment of a sustainable and globally competitive economy. The high level management of Abu Dhabi has entitled all the governmental entities in the preparation of a policy paradigm which would be consisted of a large number of integrated initiatives already implemented and will be incorporated in the future for the purpose of achieving sustainable development. For materializing the vision, there must be effective functioning of coordinated work within the governmental entities and that of the A bu Dhabi government. The continuation and distribution of the understanding of the objectives of the Abu Dhabi government will generate the superstructure of future success dynamics. The competitive and globalised economy depended on the influx of human capital, the dimension of the social and human resource policy incorporates within it a systematic amalgamation of multifaceted goals and initiatives which needs to be highly understood both by the government and the private sector as they act.

Research & Strategy Proposal Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

& Strategy Proposal - Research Paper Example The latest trends in internet marketing including the use of apps marketing is some of the ways in which firm can actually achieve its targets. This business strategy proposal will present discussion on the use of affiliates as well as the lead generation as possibly two important methods through which Jewelry for All to increase its revenue. Lead generation Customer acquisition is considered as one of the key strategic variables for the organizations. Firms like Jewelry for All working in online market need to find ways through which they can further penetrate into the new and existing markets. Online lead generation is one cost effective method which if utilized properly can increase the number of customers for our firm. Lead generation can be effective in the sense that it can allow our firm to utilize the strengths of other firms while gaining extra exposure to the market. Through lead generation, firm can actually tap into the new possibilities and further expand the market with the support of strong personal selling and other marketing techniques. (Rees, 2010) In order to successfully implement this strategy, it is important that the firm must develop strategic alliances with different firms from whom further leads can be generated. Formation of strategic alliances will allow the firm to utilize the strengths of already established players in the market while at the same time gaining exposure to the larger market. (Charlton, 2010). We should aim initially aim at those firms which are offering the brick and mortar type of business selling jewelry in on an offline market through their stores. For each lead generated, we should be able to pay reasonable price which may be tied with the final value of the sales made. It is important to note that this approach will require coordination with not only the firms generating leads but with the potential customers identified through this lead generation process. Affiliate marketing Affiliate marketing is another eff ective way through which the firm can effectively reach to the new customers. The increasing popularity of the affiliate networking sites and their relative brand strength can serve as one of the best strategic tools for the firms to expand into new markets and take advantage of the brand reputation of other firms. (Swan, 2010). In order to set up an effective affiliate program, it is important that the firm must offer higher commission rates to the affiliates. Further the development of a tiered commission structure would further induce the experienced affiliates to market and sell our products. It may be possible that the firm use different affiliates for different products i.e. for less expensive items such as gems and materials, firm can target different affiliates however, to sell the high value items, more experienced and established affiliates need to be listed. In order to successfully develop the affiliate program, firm can also use the social networking sites such as faceb ook and twitter to gain access to the unique and large number of affiliate marketers. (techcrunch.com, 2009) Plan of Action It is recommended that the firm should adapt the affiliate

Peter Paul Rubens Essay Example for Free

Peter Paul Rubens Essay Peter Paul Rubens is viewed in our time as one of the Masters of his period in art. Living in the 1600’s he was vastly influenced by the Baroque ideals of art and culture. He is considered by some to have blended the work from the Renaissance and Early Baroque into one of the first truly European styles of painting. His style is considered to be an exaggerated Baroque style with large amounts of emphasis on color, sensuality, and movement. Subjects in Rubens paintings are commonly shown in dynamic postures with facial expressions full of emotion and expressive movement. Rubens was born in Siegen, Westphalia on the 28th of June in 1577. He was the sixth child of his parents Jan Rubens, his father, and Maria Pypelincks, his mother. This came after quite the political scandal his family had just begun to move on from. Previous to Peter’s birth, Jan Rubens had been imprisoned for an affair with Anna of Saxony, the second wife of William of Orange. When Peter was one year old, his family moved back to Cologne from where they had fled before his birth. They had been forced to leave during the rule of the Spanish Netherlands by the Duke of Alba due to the persecution of Calvinist’s at the time. Peter’s father was a lawyer, and noticing Peter’s intelligence saw to it that he received a Classical education. After the death of Jan Ruben’s, Maria took her family back to a small property she owned in Antwerp in 1567. When Rubens was 13, his family’s last wealth was used to provide his oldest sister a marriage dowry, and he was sent to be a page under the care of Countess Lalaing. It is thought this is where he received his education in formal manners and conduct. However, after a few months had passed, under Peter’s instigation, he got his mother to apprentice him to a painter. The painter he was apprenticed to was named Tobias Verhaeght. This is essentially where Peter Paul Rubens art career began. Later he studied under two of Antwerps most prominent painters at that time, Adam van Noort and Ot to van Veen, both of which were mannerists. A large amount of Rubens early training consisted mostly of woodcuts and engravings of earlier artists works. Peter completed his training in 1598 and entered into the Guild of St. Luke as an independent master. After this Peter Paul Rubens then traveled to Italy, first stopping in Venice. There he was able to study paintings by some of the Renaissance masters such as Titian, Veronese, and Tintoretto. It is thought that the compositions and coloring used by these masters had an immediate effect on Rubens painting  style. Of these, it seems Titians influence shows the strongest in Rubens later, mature style. He then continued on to settle for a time in Mantua at the court of duke Vincenzo I of Gonzaga. Supported Financially by the duke, Rubens traveled to Rome in 1601. While there he was able to study Greek and Roman art and also copy works from the Italian masters. After spending about eight years in Italy, Peter Paul Rubens made his way back to Antwerp upon hearing of his mother b eing ill. He did not however make it to Antwerp in time and his mother had passed away upon his arrival. In September of 1609, Rubens was appointed to court painter by Albert and Isabella, governors of the Low Countries. He was also allowed special permission to have his art studio based out of Antwerp, instead of at the court which was located in Brussels. He was also given authorization to continue to work for other clients outside the court. Following his appointment as court painter, Rubens also married his first wife Isabella Brant, daughter of a prominent family in Antwerp. In 1610 he moved into a new studio and house designed by himself. This Italian-influenced villa in the center of Antwerp contained his workshop, personal art collection, and library, and is now referred to as the Rubenshuis museum. It was this workshop in which Rubens produced the majority of his now famous paintings such as Prometheus Bound, The Raising of the Cross, and The Descent from the Cross. Along with producing many paintings during this time, Rubens was also involved in the creation of prints and book title pages which further extended his fame throughout Europe. Copyrights for these prints were established in countries such as Holland, England, France, and Spain. In 1621, Peter Paul Rubens recieved another major commission in his art career from Marie de Medici, queen of France. She requested two allegorical cycles in commemoration of her and her late husband, Henry IV, for the Luxembourg Palace in Paris. The Marie de Medici cycle was completed and installed in 1625. The second series was never completed as Marie was exiled from France in 1630. Between 1625 and 1630 Rubens was also involved in diplomatic attempts to bring peace between the United Provinces and the Spanish Netherlands. For this he was knighted by Philip IV of Spain, and also by Charles I of England. Cambridge University also awarded Rubens an honorary Master of Arts degree in 1629. In the last years of Rubens life he continued to be a successful and popular artist, with more requests for work than he had time. He married 16  year old Helene Fourment four years after the death of his first wife. Helene is thought to be the inspiration for works such as The Feast of Venus, The Judgement of Paris, and The Three Graces. Rubens ended up fathering eight children in total between his two wives and passed away from gout on May 30, 1640. I think probably ranking as the most or one of the most important works produced by Peter Paul Rubins would have to be the painting The Raising of the Cross. From my reading it seems to be the most universally appreciated of Rubens works. Also, due to it being one of his earlier paintings, it seems that this painting served in fully showing Rubens potential as an artist and contributed to the attention he recieved in later commissions such as the Marie de Medici cycle. In The Raising of the Cross, the main emotion or feeling that comes to my mind is struggle. We have discussed in this class how diagonal lines convey movement in a composition and this painting is full of them. From the cross itself, to the bodies of the figures, and even the tree in the background, all show varying levels of diagonal lines. The diagonals seem to conflict each other in the painting which I believe is one of the primary elements conveying this feeling of a struggle. The balance in The Raising of the Cross seems to be asymmetrical which I feel adds to the emotion in the painting. The coloring in this work is set in such a way to highlight the figures involved in the depiction by showing large amounts of bare skin using lighter flesh colored tones against the dark background of the ground and especially in the shaded tree in the top right. Jesus, who is the central figure in this painting, is the most bare skinned and also the lightest figure in the scene which draws the eyes attention. I also notice that the bottom right of the painting is light while diagonally to the upper left is very dark. I think this is another way Rubens creates movement in this piece and draws the viewers eye across the scene. Also of note in this piece is the repetition of strain and tension shown in the figures poses, muscles, and faces. Strain and tension can also be felt in the angle of the cross itself across the painting as well as the rope pulled taught in the effort. In the end Peter Paul Rubens life exemplifies an almost fairy tale like quality for the dreams of an artist. He was successful from a young age all the way up until his death and was revered as a great artist from a relatively early point in his art career. His life was highly productive, and not defined by any major  hardship or life tragedy as some other artists. We consider Rubens as a prolific painter, and through himself and his workshop, he produced multiple hundreds of pieces or art, many of which remain today and are highly acclaimed.

R.C. Sheriffs Journeys End :: Journeys End English Literature War Essays

R.C. Sheriff's Journey's End Journeys end was first produced on 9th December 1928. The play was presented on 21st January 1929. R.C.Sherrif did not set out to glorify war he set out to show the reality, devastation and what life was actually like during the war. R.C.Sherrif had been a soldier so those that knew what it was like saw his portrayal of warfare as authentic. He does this through eyes of officers, which is different to how it is done by most play writers, as their role is more senior and after doing their duties they also have responsibility for other men and their lives. The five principal roles in Journey’s end are of four officers Osborne, Raleigh, Trotter and Hibbert but there is also Stanhope who is the commander of ‘c’ company. They all represent very different characters, Osborne is a very level-headed, older more mature person. Raleigh is a young boy who has just left school. He finds the war very exciting and he is enthusiastic about it. Trotter is a fat, jolly sort who loves his food; he is a very homely man. Stanhope is the authoritarian yet he needs alcohol to cope but he takes his job very seriously. Hibbert is basically a waste of space he is a malingerer as he tries to get home by faking an illness; it backfires on him though as Stanhope has the same illness and he is still there, he refuses to let Hibbert go home, yet Hibbert says he will go anyways but then Stanhope talks him into staying. I think R.C.Sherrif uses five people with very different characteristics and emotions to show how different people cope with the stresses of the War. Act three scenes one and two offer the first dramatic parts in Journey’s end. Most of the play up to this point is building up, conversation between the officers, with them building Raleigh’s knowledge of what will happen during the big raid. At the beginning of Act three scene one the colonel comes to see if everything is ready. When they do the raid and get the German Soldier, they don’t find out much. I think R.C.Sherrif does this because with him knowing what life was like in the war he is trying to get the point across to the audience that things don’t always go as they are planned. Then when you find out Osborne and Men have been killed it seems like a waste of time and lives. In the next scene when you see how all the men feel, it really feels authentic to how the men would of felt and makes you

Mpw1153 Moral Education Essay

ASSIGNMENT 1: ETHICAL DECISION-MAKING We make choices every day. Some of our choices are practical decisions about what will work best, look prettier, feel softer, taste sweeter, what to eat today or last longer. Those decisions don’t necessarily involve right or wrong; they involve efficiency, availability, practicality or preference. For those choices list your options, gather information about your choices, list the pros and cons for each one, select the best option and there you have it – a real decision. On the other hand many of our choices are about doing the right thing. Each of these choices involves thousands of messages whirling inside the brain. In a split second our minds review the facts, explore our feelings, study consequences, compare the options against our beliefs and priorities, consider what others may think, and give the cue for action. Decisions happen so quickly but the consequences can last a lifetime. That’s why careful consideration is important. A code of ethics can help. It determines direction in our lives. Important decision take time and need to be think it carefully cause what you do will affect the people around you. Say, you are a CEO in the process of finalising a business partnership which is vital for the survival of your company, and then you are appalled to discover at the last minute that your prospective partner is involved in systematic bribery of tax officials in one of the main countries where you are hoping to expand the market for your product. So long as nobody knows that you know you overheard a conversation in a lift, or accidentally saw an email intended for someone else. You have the option of turning a blind eye. If and when the corrupt practices are brought to light, you can claim that the wool was pulled over your eyes. By that time, your balance sheet will be looking healthier and you can afford to break with your partner and let them face the trouble alone. There is no doubt that such a course of action is unethical. But in a real life situation, the alternative option might be a very difficult decision to take, especially if there is a real danger that without this partnership your company will go out of business. Self-interest is a valid consideration. A company is not required to sacrifice its interests and those of its shareholders for the greater good. However, the case we are now describing goes well beyond legitimate self-interest. The problem, bluntly, is one of weakness of will. You know what you should do, but are reluctant to bite the bullet. And the other situation, a freak accident occurs at a chemical factory with a previously exemplary safety record, and a man dies. An investigation into the causes of the accident recommends measures to prevent similar accidents happening in the future. However these changes would be prohibitively expensive to implement. The CEO faces the choice of closing down the plant with the loss of hundreds of jobs, or allowing the plant to continue with changes in procedure which reduce the risk but do not eliminate it entirely. We are asked to determine the value of eliminating a small but significant risk of injury or death versus the value of continuing to provide employment. A dogmatic response would be to say that no value, however great, can be put on a man’s life. However, if that principle were to be put literally into practice, daily life would grind to a halt. Even if only one person a year died in a car accident, all private transport would be banned. So, while we pay lip service to the belief that a human life is beyond measure, in practice decisions are made which are inconsistent with that belief. A genuinely difficult ethical decision, on the other hand, is one where with the best will in the world you do not know what you should do. The problem here is not with the will but with ethical knowledge. The wise decision maker has the ethical knowledge that the unwise or inexperienced decision maker lacks. Lack of ability in ethical decision making can be remedied by appropriate training. As we shall now see, however, competence in making ethical decisions is still not enough. Sometimes we face ethical decisions which are difficult, not because of something we lack the required knowledge or expertise but rather because the nature of the situation which we are dealing with is such that no amount of expertise would be sufficient to  determine the one and only ‘correct’ answer. This is the characteristic feature of a true ethical dilemma.

An Empty Purse Frightens Away Friends

With the so-called  modernization  of the world we inhabit, avariciousness is increasing in the people. Increased facilities mean increased demands and an increased demand means more  stinginess  and with more stinginess comes more treacherousness. Diplomacy has become dominant over chasteness. Even the purity of blood relations and innocence of love is at the verge of extinction. Friendship which once was considered the most immaculate relation is no longer filled with the heartiest emotions of devotion, abstemiousness and harmony.People, these days, like agreements more than relations and friendship. Disloyalty has been the nature of every creature ever since life was concocted. Dog is constantly used in the sayings regarding faithfulness, when gets mad, bites its own master. Some control this evil part (disloyalty) of their complexion, while others bluntly expose it. Many such examples are there in history in which acquisitiveness and perfidiousness overshadowed loyalty. I n the start of human race the two sons of Adam fought, and Cain killed Abel despite their blood relation.Since then, human beings are murdering the beautiful emotions like fidelity and adherence. Its intensity has increased, and is increasing as the time is passing. And humanity is being replaced by inhumanness  in society. Friends no longer have the degree of affinity that they once used to have. Nowadays, it is not love or affection that inspires one to be friend with someone; money and status are the factors that matter these days. Persons are friends in just fair weather, when the status drops or money ends, they tend to leave one in the lurch.We read many stories regarding loyalty and friendship like â€Å"three friends and a bag of gold† in which three childhood friends murder each other just for a bag of gold, because when there is money the eyes and heart go blind. As Dr Thomas Fuller mentioned in his â€Å"Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs†, â€Å"Money is t he sinew of love as well as war. † People want interest in everything, even if there are emotions at the stake. People make friends not because they are inspired by the loyalty or ersonality of the person but because they are seeing their profit in the friendship, and when this specific profit of theirs starts converting to loss, they disappear like they never even knew or they had a complete overhauling of their mind which made them to forget every little detail of the person they once were so close to. It is very difficult to find a friend that stands with one through thick and thin. If one has a loyal friend than one has got more than one’s share.

All Quiet On The Western Front Essays (1050 words) - Free Essays

All Quiet On The Western Front Essays (1050 words) - Free Essays All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front is one of the greatest war novels of all time. It is a story, not of Germans, but of men, who even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war. The entire purpose of this novel is to illustrate the vivid horror and raw nature of war and to change the popular belief that war is an idealistic and romantic character. The story centers on Paul Ba?mer, who enlists in the German army with glowing enthusiasm. But in the course of war, he is consumed by it and in the end is "weary, broken, burnt out, rootless, and without hope." Through Ba?mer, Remarque examines how war makes man inhuman. He uses excellent words and phrases to describe crucial details to this theme. "The first bomb, the first explosion, burst in our hearts." Ba?mer and his classmates who enlisted into the army see the true reality of the war. They enter the war fresh from school, knowing nothing except the environment of hopeful youth and they come to a premature maturity with the war, their only home. "We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces. We are not youth any longer." They have lost their innocents. Everything they are taught, "the world of work, duty, culture, and progress" are not the slightest use to them because the only thing they need to know is how to survive. They need to know how to escape the shells as well as the emotional and psychological torment of the war. The war takes an heavy toll on the soldiers who fight in it. The terror of death will infest the minds of soldiers and bring about horrible images of death and destruction until they break down and go to pieces. "Every hour and everyday, every shell and every death cuts this thin [line of sanity], and the years waste it rapidly." In these dangerous moments, anybody would have gone mad, have deserted their post, or have fallen. It takes a special kind of soldier to deal with this emotional abuse; a soldier who will not go to pieces at the sight of a mutilated body; it takes a soldier like Ba?mer. Ba?mer has "grown accustomed to it; war is the cause of death like influenza and dysentery. The deaths are merely more frequent, more varied and terrible." He has rid himself of all feelings and thoughts. His emotions lie buried in the earth along with the soldiers who fell prey to them. His dullness protects him from going mad at the sight a slaughtered comrade or butchered friend. He wants to live at all costs so "every expression of his life must serve one purpose and one purpose only, preservation of existence, and he is absolutely focused on that." For the cost of life is the death of his emotions, his survival depends on it. Every shell that falls, every shot that fires, a soldier must face the possible certainty of death. To Ba?mer, death carries hand grenades and a bayonet, and a rifle really to take what he has long protected-his life. Whenever he looks into the eyes of an enemy soldier, he does not see a man, but sees death staring back at him. What can you do but fight back? He can not and will not coexist with you. It does not matter that he is a man of your same distinction; it does not matter if he has a mother, a father, a sister or a brother. All that matters is that he wants to take your life. The only way for you to live is to destroy him before he does destroys you. Your salvation means his sacrifice. The life of a man is the price you pay for your continual existence. Ba?mer would destroy him because he threatens his survival and his survival is most important. "We march up, moody or good-tempered soldiers-we reach the zone where the front begins and become on the instant animals." The fate of Ba?mer and the fate of all soldiers depends on their faith in their primal instincts.

Aspect of the year 1968 contributed to it being a unique year in world Essay - 1

Aspect of the year 1968 contributed to it being a unique year in world history - Essay Example To achieve this, the essay shall rely on Mark Kurlansky’s book, â€Å"1968: The Year That Rocked the World,† and Selection from Lady Bird Johnson’s March 31, 1968 diary entry, concerning Johnson’s failure to run for re-election. Kurlansky (2005) argues that his decision had several and far reaching implications on the country and presidency. He was leaving a country that was deeply divided and facing unprecedented crisis both locally and abroad. His decision to give up when the nation needed leadership most surprised many. Kurlansky’s arguments are supported by Abbie Hoffman, who asserts that the decision came at a bad time when America had involved itself deeply in the Vietnam War under Johnson’ leadership, and had already generated a negative public opinion, both locally and globally. Kurlansky quotes Hoffman that â€Å"we were standing still. How could we pull our pants down? America was already naked. What could we disrupt? America was falling apart at the seams,’ (Kurlansky 229). This confirms the surprise of the Americans after the president’s decision. Kurlansky points to the division that had arisen in the country and especially in the Democratic Party because of the Vie tnam War. The president was facing stiff opposition from his own party while, ironically, it was the republicans who supported him on the war. The decision also came at a time when the American citizens and the soldiers at the battle front were becoming demoralized due to the losses they had encountered in Vietnamese battle fronts and the desire by the people to end the war. The president himself had foreseen the effect his resignation would have on the morale of the troops on the battle front. According to Lady Bird Johnson’s March 31, 1968 diary entry, the president had consulted General Westmoreland, who was in command of the troops, in the battle front, and who had assured him that it would have little impact. While dismissing a suggestion from his wife who had talked to

DQ1Chapter 7 Video Organic Vall Family ofFarms Essay

DQ1Chapter 7 Video Organic Vall Family ofFarms - Essay Example The trend towards eating healthier organic foods is a lifestyle change. People in the United States have become more conscious of the food items they eat. The organic food industry in the United States has grown from $1 billion in sales in 1990 to $26.7 billion in sales in 2010 (Ota, 2011). The trend towards organic foods has also become popular in other parts of the world such as Europe. The organic food industry can capitalize on products beyond dairies. One of the most popular organic food items are vegetables. Other organic food products that can be found in organic food marketplaces nationwide include fruits, pastas, breads, grains, and supplements (Truefoods, 2011). 30 years ago the potential success of an organic dairy was limited due to the fact that the industry was in its birth stage. The distribution networks were not adequate and the overall demand for organic products was low. The operating costs for an organic farmer were much higher which led to higher prices for the