The current business environment is characterized Free Essays

The current business environment is characterized by a considerable level of competitive rivalry and as a result, businesses have to maintain a continuous improvement process in order to build and maintain a competitive advantage. In this respect, the development of a sustainable competitive advantage is the critical success factor. However sustainability cannot be achieved unless the company determines the strategic focus. We will write a custom essay sample on The current business environment is characterized or any similar topic only for you Order Now This is why developing a system for adopting goals becomes a critical consideration. In this respect, the management has to build the right organizational culture in which group dynamics can become facilitated. Employees are the most important assets of an organization and therefore the management has to create the right working conditions which maximize employee satisfaction. For this reason, the management might have to manage change on a continuous basis. In managing change, alignment with the strategic focus has to be maintained. In this respect adopting the right goals becomes the critical consideration. The question whether group dynamics are better at adopting goals than individual decision making can be answered depending on the situation that the company is in. There is no doubt that when it comes to managing change a cross-functional project management team must be built in order to adopt the right goals. This is because all the departments that are going to be affected by the change must be represented in the project management team. However the problem with group dynamics is that the process delays decision making (http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/old/15703015.htm). One of the reasons for this delay can be groupthink in which the participants withhold views that may not conform in order to maintain membership (cited in Robbins DeCenzo, 2003). Outside of change management, in the situation in which the decision making process has to be fast, individual decision making is undoubtedly the better option. Individually, the decision maker can speed up the process of decision making because fewer issues are considered. The problem with facilitating group dynamics in decision making is that the decision making process has to be based upon consensus. This has the advantage that the suggestions that are taken into consideration are diverse. As a result, the same problem is viewed from many different perspectives. The result is a process of brainstorming that can generate a lot of valuable ideas. However, in the situation in which the question is one of adopting goals, diversity of ideas can be a hindrance because it delays the process of decision making in adopting goals. In the event that the complexity of the situation is high then group decision making can be advantageous because too many issues will be considered, thus delaying the process. Therefore in the situation in which adopting goals does not have to take too many issues into consideration, group decision making may be the best option. However in the event that the situation is complex, then the individual decision maker will be in a position to do a better job because he can exercise intuition in arriving at a decision. From the above, it is made clear that there is no specific answer as to whether group dynamics or the individual decision maker will do a better job. The effectiveness of either of the tools depends on the complexity of the situation. The current business environment is characterized by a fast state of change. Therefore the decision making process has to be speeded up. In this respect, even in the situation which calls for many issues to be taken into consideration, the individual decision maker can do the best job. However in the event that the management of the company can afford to spend time on considering all the relevant issues, then group dynamics create the best infrastructure in which to conduct the decision making process (http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/pdf/efop/efo38561.pdf). However when facilitating group dynamics, the management must ensure that the decision making process is not affected by the need to reach a consensus. In such a situation, the participants are afraid of creating a conflict and therefore all the relevant issues are not taken into consideration. References Schwartz, Andrew E. (1994, August). Group decision-making. The CPA Journal Online. Retrieved February 19, 2009 from http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/old/ 15703015.htm. Barlow, Jeff. (2005, October). Strategic planning for the Bloomington, Indiana, fire department. Retrieved February 19, 2009 from http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/pdf/efop/ efo38561.pdf. Robbins, Stephen P., and DeCenzo, David. (2003). Fundamentals of Management. Prentice Hall. Â   How to cite The current business environment is characterized, Papers The current business environment is characterized Free Essays The current business environment is characterized by a considerable level of uncertainty and therefore businesses have to continuously reengineer their internal processes in order to build and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage. In this respect, the critical success factor is to build an organizational culture that is built to change. This is a critical consideration because, given the high level of uncertainty, the management in a business organization is no longer in a position to forecast future changes meaningfully. We will write a custom essay sample on The current business environment is characterized or any similar topic only for you Order Now Therefore the organizational structure must be flexible enough to absorb unexpected changes. The question that should be answered is how this flexibility can be built into the organizational structure. In this respect, it is the duty of the management to build the right performance management system. Through this system the management can communicate with the employees regarding which aspects of their work are vital to the strategic focus of the organization. The right performance management system is a critical consideration in terms of addressing issues related to employee motivation and empowerment. Capital One is empowering its employees through dissemination of information and by maximizing the surface area. This enables the employees to link their work to the strategic focus of the organization (cited in Zairi, 2005). The fact of the matter is that the management at all levels in Capital One is implementing strategic human resource management. In this manner it is addressing the issues of motivation and empowerment. According to the post-modern theory, business organizations need to maintain the continuous improvement process in order to build a sustainable competitive advantage (cited in Hill Jones, 2007). However the development of a sustainable competitive advantage depends on access to human capital. Capital One has devised its human resource management policies in order to develop human capital. Even through it is not directly addressing the issues of motivation and empowerment, its policies are designed to make these issues the top priorities on the management agenda. Job rotation is one of the examples. According to post-modernism, job descriptions are no longer effective because they create a static organizational structure and therefore do not equip the organization with the abilities to adapt to fast-paced change in the external environment (cited in Besterfield, 2002). According to the post-modern theory, employees have to be groomed to assume a wide variety of positions so that changing organizational structures will not be a problem for them. We see Capital One addressing this issue through creating leadership capabilities throughout the organization. The company’s recruitment and selection strategies are implemented accordingly. For example, during the recruitment process, the most important qualification for the candidate is considered to be his ability to lead a change effort. Because of carefully implemented recruitment and selection strategies, the company minimizes the costs associated with training and development (cited in Ross Perry, 2002). However the management does communicate with the employees in terms of the extent to which formal training and development programs can be arranged for the employees. A built-to-change organizational structure cannot be built without addressing the issues of motivation and empowerment. According to post-modernism, employees must be involved in the change management process (cited in Brigham Ehrhardt, 2007). This facilitates the process of addressing employee resistance to change. The management at Capital One addresses this issue through building an effective communications structure which facilitates the dissemination of mission-critical information. As mentioned before, this maximizes the level of surface area. Strategy implementation in this regard has been facilitated through the creation of a flat management structure which enables most employees to work in direct touch with the customers. This enables the employees to make the link between their work and the strategic focus of the company because working in direct touch with the customers means that the employees can see in which direction the organization should proceed in terms of customer relationship management (cited in Dess, 2007). Employee motivation and empowerment is the most critical factor in the post-modernist theory. This is because post-modernism as associated with a sustainable competitive advantage in business emphasizes employee motivation and empowerment. According to Michael Porter’s theory for strategy formulation, a business organization has three strategies at its disposal in building a competitive advantage: differentiation, cost minimization and quick response (cited in Baschab, 2005). However, according to the post-modernist theory none of these strategies will lead to the development of a sustainable competitive advantage because they can be easily copied by competitor organizations in a fast-changing external environment. Therefore, post-modernism in business focuses on the building of a strategically aligned organizational culture as the source of a sustainable competitive advantage. A strategically aligned organizational culture cannot be built without effectively addressing the issues of employee motivation and empowerment. Employees must be involved in the change management process. In this organizational structure, the issues of employee motivation and empowerment are addressed effectively because they are directly involved in building the strategic focus of the company. This is an example of what we see in Capital One. This is one of the few American companies to have been able to weather the current crisis because of its focus on the built-to-change organizational structure based in employee motivation and empowerment. The company is not consciously addressing these issues as such. However because of its strategies in recruitment, selection, job rotation and training and development, it has been able to involve the employees in the constant process of managing change. This has only maximized their productivity as employees are motivated to work for the company because they are empowered to act on behalf of the company. This has created an organizational structure based in motivation and empowerment which aligns employee interests to organizational interests. This is an example of post-modernism in business. References Baschab, John., et al. (2005). The Executive Guide to Information Technology. McGraw Hill/Irwin. Besterfield, Dale H., et al. (2002). Total Quality Management. McGraw Hill/Irwin. Brigham, Eugene F., and Michael C. Ehrhardt. (2007). Financial Management: Theory Practice. South western college pub. Dess, Gregory G., et al. (2007). Strategic Management: Creating Competitive Advantage. McGraw Hill/Irwin. Hill, Charles., and Gareth Jones. (2007). Strategic Management Theory: An Integrated Approach. McGraw Hill/Irwin. Ross, Joel E. and Susan Perry. (2002). Total Quality Management: Text, Cases, Readings. Wiley. Zairi, Mohamed. (2005). Excellence Toolkit: Delivering Sustainable Performance. eTQM College Publishing House. How to cite The current business environment is characterized, Papers The current business environment is characterized Free Essays The current business environment is characterized by intense competitive rivalry and businesses have to undertake aggressive marketing initiatives in order to counter this threat. The importance of marketing in ensuring that a business organization can develop and maintain a competitive edge is growing exponentially. Corporations are now pouring millions into their promotional campaigns in order to create an image for themselves in the customer mindset. We will write a custom essay sample on The current business environment is characterized or any similar topic only for you Order Now This trend of massive financial resources being thrown into marketing is particularly evident in the area of sports marketing. In this area, massive opportunities exist in terms of public relations events which have global reach. Thus any corporation that can have its logo associated with events like the Olympics which are broadcast throughout the world stand to gain substantially out of investing in the rights to have its logo associated with the event. This is called corporate sponsorship. However the benefits of corporate sponsorship have led to the rise of unethical marketing practices called ambush marketing. Ambush marketing is defined to have taken place when a marketer has its products associated with a sports event without having paid for any of the rights to association (cited in Ironside, 2007). Thus the ambush marketer enjoys all the benefits of being a legitimate corporate sponsor without paying a cent. The trend of ambush marketing has been growing steadily in the last few years as shown in figure 1. As shown in the figure, sports organizers have been experiencing massive revenue losses as result of the phenomenon of ambush marketing which keeps going strong despite efforts to counter the threat. The threat is particularly detrimental because the actual corporate sponsors have hardly anything to gain by seeking recourse to legal means because courts usually rule in favor of ambush marketers. This happens because ambush marketers never engage in any activities that could be defined as infringement of intellectual property rights (cited in Meenaghan, 1996). Ambush marketers operate through hints and allusions which do not qualify as infringement of rights in legal vernacular. As a result corporate sponsors have to devise pre-emptive strategies on their own and this adds to the cost of buying rights to the sponsorship (cited in Uphoff, 2006). The process of devising counter strategies requires an understanding of the ways and means by which ambush marketers take advantage of their opportunities. However there are so many ways and means in this regard that it is difficult to develop contingency plans for all of them. There are at least six recognized opportunities which ambushers take advantage of from time to time such as purchasing broadcasting rights to an event or broadcasting time around the time of the event broadcast, sponsoring an event other than the organizing body, purchasing advertising space, thematic advertising and counter attraction (cited in Crompton, 2004). What all of this means is that if the trend of ambush marketing is allowed to go on unmitigated, it will discourage corporate sponsors from sponsorship spending and major sports events will lose an important source of revenue. Therefore sports property owners have the duty of making ambush marketing difficult and expensive for the competitors of official corporate sponsors. References Aaker, David A. (2004). Strategic Market Management. McGraw Hill/Irwin. Crompton, John L. (2004). Sponsorship Ambushing in Sport. Managing Leisure, 9, 1-12. Ironside, Sue. (2007). Combating Ambush Marketing. NZ Marketing Magazine, 26, 26-27. Retrieved March 15, 2008 from Business Source Elite database. Kolah, Ardi. (2005). Essential Law for Marketers. Prentice Hall. Kotler, Philip., and Gary Armstrong. (2005). Principles of Marketing. Prentice Hall. Meenaghan, T. (1996). Ambush Marketing – A Threat to Corporate Sponsorship. Sloan Management Review, 38, 103-13. Retrieved March 15, 2008 from Business Source Elite database. Uphoff, Boris., et al. (2006). Kick-off to Ambush Marketing at World Cup. Managing Intellectual Property, 156, 91-92. Retrieved March 15, 2008 from Business Source How to cite The current business environment is characterized, Papers

Doing Ethics Technique Android Banking Trojans

Questions: 1. What is going on?2. What are the facts?3. What are the issues? 4. Who is affected?5. What are the ethical issues and their implications?6. What could have been done about it?7. What are the options?8. Which option is the best and why? Answers: 1. The incident, which is considered here, was reported by the news website (Cimpanu, 2016). The news article titled as Android Banking Trojans Based on GM Bot Infected over 200,000 Users in the Past 3 Months was published on 5th November. The incident describes the experience of people who installs GM Bot v1 affected application. GM Bot is one of the banking Trojan which is created in the year 2014, and was released in Russia by one of the hacking forums (Cimpanu, 2016). The GM Bot v1 source code is leaked in the year 2016 by one of the clients of Ganjaman, who was the developer of the malware. A person named crooks uses GM Bot by packing the malware inside an application, which is disguised as flash fake player for various android devices. This app is distributed among the people but outside the Google play store because Google always provide a warning to alert the users for uninstalling the app, which is not verified effectively (Park Roo, 2013). Many people install the affected GM Bot in their mobile phones. This application uses a persons email id as well as password for logging into the application, which leads to hacking of personal as well as financial information of the users. 2. GM Bot is packed inside an app by disguising it as fake flash player for the android users. The people download the infected app, which constantly pester the users for their personal details. The reason of asking for the personal detail is to have power for overlaying fake login screen on the top of the application, which generally asks for personal as well as financial details of the users including banking details and many more (Manjula Shanmugan, 2016). The popularity of GM Bot with an additional feature has targeted large number of banks around the world. 3. The issues that are related with the malware is that, crook have packed it inside an application by disguising it. Since the popularity of GM Bot is high in the market, crook disguised the malware inside a fake flash player for various android devices. This increased the popularity of the malware more among the people (Moon Park, 2016). It is not available in the Goggle, as it may not allow it users to have access on the unauthorized application. The users install the application inside their phones, which raises number of issues. The application asks the users to provide their details for logging inside the application. The main reason for logging is to overlay the fake login screen, which stores the data, and information related with the banks and other personal information of the users (Sethi, 2015). This raises number of issues. The hacking of financial details including the details of the bank has affected large number of people all around the world. It also targeted large n umber of banks across different countries. 4. The issue that arises due to the android banking Trojans based on GM Bot have affected more than 200,000 users all over the world in the past 3 months. The legitimate app, which is created by Crook, captures financial information of the users (Salman, Saad Ali, 2013). The issue not only affected the people but it also targeted large number of banks all around the world. 5. There are number of ethical issues that arise due to the situation. The most important ethical issue that arises is that one of the clients of Ganjamans released the source code of GM Bot online for free. Crooks took the advantage of the situation and packed the malware by disguising it inside the fake flash player (Roberts Allen, 2015). People install the application and use their personal information for logging inside the application, which leads to several other ethical issues. The users log in to the account by providing their personal as well as financial information including the bank details (Klein et al., 2015). The various data and information of the users are stored inside the application, which is used further for hacking their bank account. The situation not only targeted common people but it also targeted large number of banks all over the world. 6.The developers of different applications must implement strict rules and regulations so that unverified apps could not enter the market. The people must also need to be aware in order to avoid downloading application from unauthorized websites. 7. There are number of options, which can be used in order to minimize or avoid the situation that has happened in Australia. The people all over the world must be aware before downloading or installing any type of app. They must verify the app properly about its different feature before downloading. Some rules and regulation must be made so that the developers cannot launch the unverified app in the website. The people must check the warning messages that are provided before installation off the application. It is also important to be careful before providing all the personal as well as financial information for logging inside an application. If these steps are followed by every individual then the issue that have aroused in Australia can be minimized or avoided fully. 8. The best option is that people must check as well as verify the application before installing them. This is because it reduces the chances of ethical issue by 50 percent. If the people are aware then the problem that has aroused in Australia may not happen again. References Cimpanu, C. (2016).Android Banking Trojans Based on GM Bot Infected Over 200,000 Users in the Past 3 Months.BleepingComputer. Retrieved 30 November 2016, from https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/android-banking-trojans-based-on-gm-bot-infected-over-200-000-users-in-the-past-3-months/ Klein, E., Brown, T., Sample, M., Truitt, A.R. Goering, S. (2015). Engineering the Brain: Ethical Issues and the Introduction of Neural Devices.Hastings Center Report,45(6), pp.26-35. Manjula, R.P. Shanmugan, D.R. (2016). A Study on Customer Preference Towards Cyber Crime With Banking Industry.International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Modern Education,2, pp.597-603. Moon, S.H. Park, D.W. (2016). Forensic Analysis of MERS Smishing Hacking Attacks and Prevention.International Journal of Security and Its Applications,10(6), pp.181-192. Park, D. W., Roo, K. H. (2013). Analysis of Internet Banking Security Crack Through Messenger Hacking. InFuture Information Communication Technology and Applications(pp. 179-187). Springer Netherlands. Roberts, L.D. Allen, P.J. (2015). Exploring ethical issues associated with using online surveys in educational research.Educational Research and Evaluation,21(2), pp.95-108. Salman, A., Saad, S. Ali, M.N.S. (2013). Dealing with Ethical Issues among Internet Users: Do We Need Legal Enforcement?.Asian Social Science,9(8), p.3. Sethi, R. (2015). Analysis of Security Algorithms used in E-Commerce and ATM Transactions.Analysis,11(08), pp.19-24.

Writing Stories free essay sample

Not many people can say that they like writing stories, or that they read stories online to help with their own writing style, or even that they use a few Internet forums as storage space for the first draft of what is hoped to become a novel. In that minority, I see myself; Hopeful that one day, I can publish a novel based on some story I came up with on sleepless nights years ago, gaining a writing style by observing styles used in video games, online fiction, and real novels as well as writing in text-based forum role-playing games (my identity completely anonymous, for certain). Writing this potential novel takes time, lots of inspiration, and practice. It also helps to be a bit unconventional. I consider my choice of storage to be odd, because it opens up the work to criticism (albeit mostly positive comments) from random, also anonymous people, not something most people would want with a first draft. We will write a custom essay sample on Writing Stories or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Also rather odd, though somewhat sensible, is my choice of words within the work: In one online location, I’ll have a few words changed compared to a different site, mostly because of different censor rules on the sites, but also as a sort of experiment. A method that I consider good is that I avoid stilted, flamboyant writing presentation. I could say that it all started a month after my thirteenth birthday, but in truth, it all goes back to when I was still in lower school. Every little kid has a tendency to come up with a fantasy, a sort of place where they insert themselves in with a bunch of characters from whichever recent influence has affected them, be it a book they enjoyed or a television show. They always think of some superpower to give themselves, and almost always conveniently make friends with everyone, even villains they like. All children at some point think of this sort of fantasy, and I was no exception. Still, though, unlike most children, the concept stayed with me, and instead of keeping the idea of a boy with superpowers in a world filled with characters copyrighted by big companies, I thought of a team. Though I stuck with the number four for the number of team members, I was bound to give them some form of special abilities, and so I did: The main protagonist has double normal human reaction sp eed and can run roughly twice as fast as a world class sprinter. The other three have similarly limited, yet inhuman abilities. It didn’t stop there. Around the age of thirteen, puberty brings with it an interest in girls, something that is reflected in nearly every character I’ve created since then. Each one is roughly sixteen years old and has some tragic history, and being with a girl that the character has, in time, fallen in love with. The first serious story I wrote, as well as the online RPGs I participated in, had a character that was named Ayitak, who’s family had been killed off years ago, and he met a girl named Jennel, who’s family was also killed, and eventually fell in love with her. Still, though, the repetitiveness of the idea got to me, and then I thought: What if the girl the main character starts off dating†¦ dies before true love sets in? It has been done before, yes, but I had a different idea. Instead of building up the character in preparation for her death, I could characterize her more as the story progresses, well after her death. The idea is that the reader doesn’t devel op any feelings for the characters right off the bat, and so this tragedy won’t affect them. Then, as time goes on, and the story continues, bits and pieces of her true character come out, and after a while, if a reader so wishes, he or she can imagine exactly who the girl was and how the main character really felt. This also eliminates another fantasy that’s been done to death: the damsel in distress. Even though I do bring another girl into the mix, she is much stronger. Her existence remains relatively secret, and she remains too protected to be in any danger of kidnapping. That combined with her superhuman nature keep her out of any would-be kidnapper’s mind. Ideas like that don’t come easy, and presentation is a matter all its own. The sort of writing styles I saw in those text-based RPGs ranged from illiterate and grammatically terrible to downright excellent. I saw one person that forgot to put spaces between his periods and the next sentence, jumbling up the words, and I saw the disadvantages of writing in script-style, with a character’s name and brackets. The disadvantage to that is that it lacks any thematic elements, with a linear structure and lack of any particular detail. I also saw character interaction in near-perfect execution, something that aids me greatly, with people absolutely nailing the characters they use and how they would react to something a different character would say. Aside from online material, I also have to thank some games on my video game consoles, such as Fire Emblem and The Legend of Zelda. Those games have writing that is almost purely in a script style, but with character portraits to g ive an idea of what the character looks like. Because they are video games, though, they go by the maxim, â€Å"A picture is worth a thousand words,† with animations and subtle background effects to detract the need for physical descriptions. Also of interest to me is that these games have stories composed entirely out of character interaction. Playing through them and reading every ounce of their story proved to be a good experience, keeping me entertained and helping me with writing. How? Well, take Fire Emblem, for example. All that game has are character portraits and writing. The dialogue is displayed below the characters in a text box, with the speaking character highlighted on the screen. The language each character uses is unique, with accents, such as the British accent’s lack of an â€Å"h† pronunciation. This helps because it shows me different possibilities with character speech. What really brought about my interest in writing was when I started reading online stories, particularly a few about video game characters. Reason: I’m a nerd like that. Seriously, though, what I saw was very different from the plain text of, say, â€Å"Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.† What I saw was capturing, mysterious, and, at the same time, technically unprofessional and a mere first of second draft. Something unprofessional had all it needed to be publishable except rights to the characters, yet where was it? On a site called fanfiction.net. It intrigued me into searching the Internet for more, and I found it on a different site. That place was Gamefaqs.com. What Gamefaqs.com had were forums, cheat codes, and game guides typed by average people. Within those forums, I found a place with plenty of talented writers who spent more time with online material than writing to make something they’d try to publish. These are the same people that had nailed character interaction and had a descriptive, gripping style that makes them a must-have for any group-writing idea. When our first text-based MMORPG, â€Å"In the Shadow of the Dawn† started shortly after my story, â€Å"The Evil Overlord† failed miserably, I joined in with the aforementioned Ayitak. I have the entire RPG history saved, and it amuses me to see how different I was at the beginning compared to now. Truly, writing for that story with all those other writers in an anonymous sort of fashion was where the majority of my writing practice comes from. I even still occasionally write there today. It all started itching at me, urging me to start. Eventually, the ideas started to impede my ability to think about writing anything else, and I started. For Chapter 1 and the beginning of Chapter 2, all I have posted up are first drafts. The first chapter deals with the 4 characters, Stride, Argent, Orion, and Viran traveling to an island on a sort of mercenary mission. They’re searching for a criminal with red hair and yellow eyes, though they are never told what crimes he committed, and they stay at a hotel where Stride meets someone that Orion hopes will help slightly heal his heartache. In chapter 2, after witnessing a man’s murder on the street by a sniper, Stride discovers a hidden semi-secret about the island-city that casts a shadow over its government. The first drafts were received well, with the four parts of chapter 1 ranking a 4/5, 4/5, 5/5, and 4/5 from one of the readers, specifically the one that was best at character interaction. This only made me wan t to keep going, though the recent destruction of my laptop has impeded my work. The story will continue, though. What else can be said? My odd choices combined with my writing style form an uncommon mix, one that is different, and one that works. My choices of space create a permanent place to recover first drafts, and my ideas for the story continue to flow. This story will be my novel, my epic, and, hopefully, my masterpiece.

Dorothy Day, Founder of the Catholic Worker Movement

Dorothy Day, Founder of the Catholic Worker Movement Dorothy Day was a writer and editor who founded the Catholic Worker, a penny newspaper that grew into a voice for the poor during the Great Depression. As the driving force in what became a movement, Days unwavering advocacy for charity and pacifism made her controversial at times. Yet her work among the poorest of the poor also made her an admired example of a deeply spiritual person actively engaged in addressing societys problems. When Pope Francis addressed the U.S. Congress in September 2015, he focused much of his speech on  four Americans he found particularly inspiring: Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day, and Thomas Merton. Days name was no doubt unfamiliar to millions watching the Popes speech on television. But his effusive praise of her indicated how influential her lifes work with the Catholic Worker Movement was to the Popes own thoughts about social justice. Fast Facts: Dorothy Day Born: November 8, 1897, New York City.Died: November 29, 1980, New York City.Founder of the Catholic Worker, a small newspaper published in the Depression which became a social movement.Named by Pope Francis in his 2015 speech to Congress as one of his four most admired Americans.Is widely expected to be declared a saint in the Catholic Church. During her lifetime, Day could seem out of step with mainstream Catholics in America. She operated at the fringe of organized Catholicism, never seeking permission or official endorsement for any of her projects. Day came late to the faith, converting to Catholicism as an adult in the 1920s. At the time of her conversion, she was an unmarried mother with a complicated past that included life as a bohemian writer in Greenwich Village, unhappy love affairs, and an abortion that rendered her emotionally devastated. A movement to have Dorothy Day canonized as a saint in the Catholic Church began in the 1990s. Days own family members have said she would have scoffed at the idea. Yet it seems likely that she will one day be an officially recognized saint of the Catholic Church. Early Life Dorothy Day was born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 8, 1897. She was the third of five children born to John and Grace Day. Her father was a journalist who bounced from job to job, which kept the family moving between New York City neighborhoods and then onward to other cities. When her father was offered a job in San Francisco in 1903, the Days moved westward. Economic disruption caused by the San Francisco earthquake three years later cost her father his job, and the family moved on to Chicago. By the age of 17, Dorothy had already completed two years of study at the University of Illinois. But she abandoned her education in 1916  when she and her family moved back to New York City. In New York, she began writing articles for socialist newspapers. With her modest earnings, she moved into a small apartment on the Lower East Side. She became fascinated by the vibrant yet difficult  lives of impoverished immigrant communities, and Day became an obsessive walker, ferreting out stories in the citys poorest neighborhoods. She was hired as a reporter by the New York Call, a socialist newspaper, and began contributing articles to a revolutionary magazine, The Masses. Bohemian Years As America entered World War I and a patriotic wave swept the country, Day found herself immersed in a life filled with politically radical, or  simply offbeat, characters in Greenwich Village. She became a Village resident, living in a succession of cheap apartments and spending time in tearooms and saloons frequented by writers, painters, actors, and political activists. Day began a platonic friendship with playwright Eugene ONeill, and for a period during World War I, she entered a training program to become a nurse. After leaving the nursing program at the wars end, she became romantically involved with a journalist, Lionel Moise. Her affair with Moise ended after she had an abortion, an experience that sent her into a period of depression and intense inner turmoil. She met Forster Batterham through literary friends in New York and began living with him in a rustic cabin near the beach on Staten Island (which, in the early 1920s, was still rural). They had a daughter, Tamar, and after the birth of her child Day began to feel a sense of religious awakening. Though neither Day or Batterham were Catholic, Day took Tamar to a Catholic church on Staten Island and had the child baptized. The relationship with Batterham became difficult and the two often separated. Day, who had published a novel based on her Greenwich Village years, was able to purchase a modest cottage on Staten Island and she created a life for herself and Tamar. To escape the winter weather along the Staten Island shore, Day and her daughter would live in sublet apartments in Greenwich Village during the coldest months. On December 27, 1927, Day took a life-changing step by riding a  ferry back to Staten Island, visiting the Catholic church she knew, and having herself baptized. She later said she felt no great joy in the action, but rather regarded it as something she had to do. Finding Purpose Day continued writing and taking jobs as a researcher for publishers. A play she had written hadnt been produced, but somehow came to the attention of a Hollywood movie studio, which offered her a writing contract. In 1929 she and Tamar took a train to California, where she joined the staff of Pathà © Studios. Days Hollywood career was short. She found the studio not terribly interested in her contributions. And when the stock market crash in October 1929 hit the movie industry hard, her contract was not renewed. In a car she had purchased with her studio earnings, she and Tamar relocated to Mexico City. She returned to New York the following year. And after a trip to Florida to visit her parents, she and Tamar settled in a small apartment on 15th Street, not far from Union Square, where sidewalk speakers advocated solutions to the misery of the Great Depression. In December 1932 Day, returning to journalism, traveled to Washington, D.C. to cover a march against hunger for Catholic publications. While in Washington she visited the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on December 8, the Catholic Feast Day of the Immaculate Conception.   She later recalled she had been losing her faith in the Catholic Church over its apparent indifference to the poor. Yet as she prayed at the shrine she began to sense a purpose to her life. After  returning to New York City, an eccentric character turned up in Days life, someone she regarded as a teacher who may have been sent by the Virgin Mary. Peter Maurin was a French immigrant who worked as a laborer in America though he had taught at schools run by the Christian Brothers in France. He was a frequent speaker in Union Square, where he would advocate novel, if not radical, solutions for societys ills. Founding of the Catholic Worker Maurin sought  out Dorothy Day after reading some of her articles about social justice. They began spending time together, talking and arguing. Maurin suggested Day should start her own newspaper. She said she had doubts about finding the money to get a paper printed, but Maurin encouraged her, saying they needed to have faith that the funds would appear. Within months, they did manage to raise enough money to print their newspaper. On May 1, 1933, a gigantic May Day demonstration was held at Union Square in New York. Day, Maurin, and a group of friends hawked the first copies of the Catholic Worker. The four-page newspaper cost a penny. The New York Times described the crowd  in Union Square that day as being filled with communists, socialists, and assorted other radicals. The newspaper noted the presence of banners denouncing sweatshops, Hitler, and the Scottsboro case. In that setting, a newspaper focused on helping the poor and achieving social justice was a hit. Every copy sold. That  first issue of the Catholic Worker contained a column by Dorothy Day which outlined its purpose. It began: For those who are sitting on park benches in the warm spring sunlight.For those who are huddling in shelters trying to escape the rain.For those who are walking the streets in the all but futile search for work.For those who think that there is no hope for the future, no recognition of their plight - this little paper is addressed.It is printed to call their attention to the fact that the Catholic Church has a social program - to let them know that there are men of God who are working not only for their spiritual, but for their material welfare. The success of the newspaper continued. In a lively and informal office, Day, Maurin, and what became a regular cast of dedicated souls labored to produce an issue every month. Within a few years, the circulation reached 100,000, with copies being mailed to all regions of America.   Dorothy Day wrote a column in each issue, and her contributions continued for nearly 50 years, until her death in 1980. The archive of her columns represents a remarkable view of modern American history, as she began commenting on the plight of the poor in the Depression and moved on to the violence of the world at war, the Cold War, and protests of the 1960s. Dorothy Day addressing a protest against the Vietnam War.   Getty Images Prominence and Controversy Beginning with her youthful writings for socialist newspapers, Dorothy Day was often been out of step with mainstream America. She was arrested for the first time in 1917, while picketing the White House with suffragists demanding that women have the right to vote. In prison, at the age of 20, she was beaten by the police, and the experience made her even more sympathetic to the oppressed and powerless in society. Within years of its 1933 founding as a small newspaper, the Catholic Worker evolved into being a social movement. Again with Peter Maurins influence, Day and her supporters opened soup kitchens in New York City. The feeding of the poor continued for years, and the Catholic Worker also opened houses of hospitality offering places to stay for the homeless. For years the Catholic Worker also operated a communal farm near Easton, Pennsylvania. Besides writing for the Catholic Worker newspaper, Day traveled extensively, giving talks on social justice and meeting activists, both inside and outside the Catholic Church. She was at times suspected of holding subversive political views, but in a sense she operated outside of politics. When followers of the Catholic Worker Movement refused to participate in Cold War fallout shelter drills, Day and others were arrested. She was later arrested while protesting with union farm workers in California. She remained active until her death, in her room at a Catholic Worker residence in New York City, on November 29, 1980. She was buried on Staten Island, near the site of her conversion. Legacy of Dorothy Day In the decades since her death, the influence of Dorothy Day has grown. A number of books have been written about her, and several anthologies of her writings have been published. The Catholic Worker community continues to flourish, and the newspaper which first sold for a penny in Union Square still publishes seven times a year in a print edition. An extensive archive, including all of Dorothy Days columns is available for free online. More than 200 Catholic Worker communities exist in the United States and other countries. Perhaps the most noteworthy tribute to Dorothy Day was, of course, the comments by Pope Francis in his address to Congress on September 24, 2015. He said:   In these times when social concerns are so important, I cannot fail to mention the Servant of God Dorothy Day, who founded the Catholic Worker Movement. Her social activism, her passion for justice and for the cause of the oppressed, were inspired by the Gospel, her faith, and the example of the saints. Near the end of his speech, the Pope again spoke of Days striving for justice: A nation can be considered great when it defends liberty as Lincoln did, when it fosters a culture which enables people to dream of full rights for all their brothers and sisters, as Martin Luther King sought to do; when it strives for justice and the cause of the oppressed, as Dorothy Day did by her tireless work, the fruit of a faith which becomes dialogue and sows peace in the contemplative style of Thomas Merton. With the leaders of the Catholic Church praising her work, and others continually discovering her writings, the legacy of Dorothy Day, who found her purpose editing a penny newspaper for the poor, seems assured.

Beggaining of catholic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Beggaining of catholic - Essay Example Jesus of Nazareth was an itinerant preacher in Jerusalem during the Common Era’s early 30s. Catholicism is strongly founded on the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. In this regard, the proclamation of Catholic Church is that the death of Jesus Christ was for intended for this church. In addition, Catholicism was built and established on by the apostles through Peter who is believed to have been given the Keys to Heaven’s Kingdom. Peter was also given the power to loosen and bind that which is bound in Heaven. At this point, the Catholics believe that Jesus gave Peter the obligation to serve as the head of the Church under the authority of Jesus (Norman, p.8). After Jesus’ resurrection, His mission of bringing salvation to man was complete. However, one would only obtain salvation through encounter with Jesus in baptism and becoming a disciple. This way, the church would be established. Holmes and Bicker reveal that with Peter as the church’s head, the other disciples assisted in the mission of disciples making in the world as Jesus had commanded. Through this mission, the word Catholic was used to mean universal, which also means the Catholic Church reaching around the world. The Pope and Bishops head the Catholic Church congregation. The roles of the Pope originated from Peter the church head, while the disciples were replaced with bishops. The Pope is considered to be the successor to have succeeded Peter whose grave is in Vatican City today. At first, the Roman Catholic Church in the Roman Empire was prohibited. In this empire, Christians were under terrible prosecutions. These conditions lasted for about three hundred years until the reign of Emperor Constantine (Vidmar, p.10). The conversion of Emperor Constantine into Catholicism made it legal and eventually recognized as the religion for the empire officially. Constantine legalized Christianity in A.D.

Business report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Business report - Essay Example Given the fact that Chicken Treat is into the quick service restaurant industry, the nation has already witnessed a lot of new players in this particular area starting operations in India. The world famous players like MacDonalds, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut etc have already opened scores of outlets in all major cities within India. So the time is ripe for making an entry into the Indian markets since deferring this decision would only increase competition and may also lead to entry in an already saturated market. The report would harp on the macro environmental factors that are probable to become important if Chicken Treat actually mulls expanding these outlets into the Indian shores. With the help of PESTL and SWOT, the literature available on the industry at large, the upcoming trends, the best market entry decision for Chicken Treat would be suggested in order to make the new market development work a likely success. PESTL Analysis The analysis should initiate with the PESTEL Analysis, which refers to the blend of various macro environmental forces that drive the performance of the organization and consists of the political, economic, sociological, technological, ecological and legal forces (Viardot, 2004). Furthermore, â€Å"it assists companies in the selection of attractive markets and the appropriate entry mode† (Aubert & Frigstad, 2007). Political India as a nation is indeed currently politically stable and post globalization the country has been trying to attract FDI in various sectors and one of those leading industries is the quick service restaurant industry. This is likely to prove to be an advantage in terms of the political environment of Chicken Treat and its subsequent market expansion in the Indian markets (Krafft & Mantrala, 2010, 130). As already mentioned, South Asian nations in general and specifically India and China have gradually geared up for globalization and are therefore welcoming multinationals like MacDonalds and Pizza Hut. In th e context of globalization, various regulation and tax policies as well as FDI regulations have already been relaxed to a substantial extent and the processes of deregulation and delicensing of various products and services are taking place at a fast pace. This should also work towards paving the way for companies like Chicken Treat to open outlets in India. However, given the high order of democracy in India, various political organisations have been trying to resist the entry of too many firms in food sector with particular emphasis on FDI in retail and especially multi brand retail (Datt, 2008, 178). This may also affect the quick service restaurant industry to a considerable extent and hamper the proper functioning of firms such as Chicken Treat. Again, it is sure that the Indian government wants more investment in FDI; therefore the environment should work out to be overall congenial for Chicken Treat in India. Legal The legal environment of Chicken Treat in India again brings forth quite a few heartening aspects of heightened outlay in FDI and patronization from the government along with various other legal entanglements that should be adhered to if a firm intends to open sales outlets in India. Among the other aspects of the legal environme

170D 20th Century China

170D 20th Century China Alice Locke The use of written language as a tool of communication is the most vital aspect of modern society. Almost everything deals with either our numerical or linguistic system to function, from the binary code running electronic devices to words directing traffic in a busy thoroughfare. Language exists to consistently and conveniently convey thought in an accessible medium. China faced, in the twilight of the Qing Dynasty, a crisis of identity where its people were scattered and divided as to how they were going to adapt their language towards their evolving needs. Jing Tsu, in his article, Chinese Scripts, Codes, and Typewriting Machines, delves into this issue, and elaborates on the struggles faced by intellectuals of the time as they attempted to reconfigure and reconstruct the chinese ideographic system for use in the modern era. Tsu argues that, The script revolution, which was often pushed into the background while bigger political events seized the stage of twentieth-century China, turned out to be the lasting one. It irreversibly augmented the global influence of the Chinese language, thereby opening up a new space for competition and co-option between the alphabetic and ideographic writing systems.1 Though the author then goes on to mention the obsolete nature of the identification of chinese script as ideographic, she maintains the distinction between the Chinese and western systems of writing. The core argument of this article is that while the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were a time of extraordinary social and political upheaval, the most lasting impact of this revolution was the alterations made to the Chinese script. The importance of this piece lies in its interpretations of the adaptations that contemporary intellectuals had to create to facilitate the Chinas transition into the modern era. Since antiquity, the Chinese writing system has been considered sacred, a divine writing system devised by the heavens, and for this reason, there had been a long held belief that any attempt to alter it would be sacrilege. In the face of such history, the intellectuals of the late Qing period were determined to produce a method of advancing their nations competency on the global level. Giving a disclaimer, the author chooses to focus neither on the interactions of languages nor the potential appropriations that they made on one another, attributing these assertions to scholarly articles.2 [120]Though these issues are intrinsic to the grand scale, they can be put aside for a more indepth look at a particular movement in history. The logographic text was used as a cultural standard establishing Chinas cultural prestige, but now it was becoming an issue, the complexity of the script made it very difficult for average people to have significant access. This in turn largely contributed t o the low rate of literacy in the population at the time, and more importantly, made writings very difficult to mass produce. Seeing this increasing divide between the current utility of the language and the increasing need for unavailable modes of communication, Chinese script writers put their life on the line to modernize their language, and to adapt it for a modern world focused on the maths and sciences.3 [120] At the onset of this literary revolution, the government was largely still favoring the antiquated system that had been used for centuries, unlike the intellectuals, the government was more concerned with the traditional thoughts of the script being handed down from the heavens, than recognizing a need to ingrain itself into the new world forming around it. Tsu then goes on to note an argument published by the Cambridge University Press, that establishes language as the basic method of argumentation and explanation.4 [121] This argument, presented as another scholarly ar ticle, establishes the basis of language and shows that even though different language system can have the same basis, they might not lead the people to the same ideologies. This illustrates the divide between eastern and western philosophies, not as a vast intellectual difference, but rather as a systematic lack of infrastructure to support varying logics. As a result of China being surpassed in technological and scientific disciplines, Chinese contemporaries looked towards the west for ideas to incorporate into their script revolution. These revolutionaries would incorporate various methods of writing from the west and Japan in order to better prepare the Chinese writing system for use in the modern scientific era. Many of these intellectuals experimented with Isaac Pitmans phonography in order to attempt to create a shorthand method of expressing Chinese while maintaining the general style of the system. Reverend Alexander Gregory created and published a possible version of shorthand Chinese in the Phonetic Journal which influenced and inspired others interested in the area to use his example as a basis for a modern Chinese shorthand.5 [130] The Phonetic Journal was a scholarly collection of works submitted, through this medium, ideas both simple and complicated could be examined and distributed by people throughout the globe. By see ing this example, intellectuals would not only have been given inspiration how to go about the revolution, but also a reminder of how their proposed script could be used to spread knowledge. Indeed, many of the proposed scripts came with an example, something recognizable that was translated into the shorthand that the author was attempting to establish. Tsu describes that each author had various motivations for their attempt at the creation of a simplified Chinese script, missionaries attempted to use it as a tool to better attract converts, intellectuals sought a better method of disseminating information, scientists wanted a better method of noting data, the Chinese people wanted an improvement to their writing system and many believed that shorthand was the best mode of revolution at the time.6 [131] The revolution continued to garner support, and quickly became a global endeavour, with contributions from as far away as Glasgow.7 [131] These publications taken from various scholarly journals were used to demonstrate the scope and nature of the early script revolution. Unfortunately though, the vast majority of the proposed scripts ran into similar problems, in essence they were too complicated and failed to meet the initial expectations of being easier to learn.8 [132] The creator of each script as well as those around him were able to grasp the concept without much effort, as intended, but the further away from himself that the creator got, it became a growingly difficult material to teach. Those that adopted the system early could adapt to the added rules and subtleties, but the systems became too complicated to be useful as shorthand.9 [134] Every language is complicated, with millennia of small changes that have led to vast differences between dialects, Chinese in the north i s a vastly different language than in the south, similar to comparing French and Italian, grammar and pronunciation rules are so different that trying to create a generic system for both languages would be extremely difficult. While both French and Italian use an alphabetical basis for their script, each has its own special characters, along with having pronunciation of similar strings of characters vastly differ, even within their own language. The greatest mistake of these script writers was to attempt to unify the script of the nation without unify the language of the nation. From the start, their approach was doomed to fail as they lacked the vision for scale, they created systems adapted for their personal needs at the time, but were unable to cater to the population as a whole. The failings of these early reformers would grow into a new era of reform in Chinese script. Tsu maintains that the window of opportunity was far too short for these radical shorthand methods to gain popularity and the gradual reform necessary to incorporate such system.10 [135] The debate for the path of the modern language reached the height of debate during these early years of the republic. It still wasnt entirely clear which direction the country was headed linguistically, with some called for a Han Script Revolution,11 [138] among other controversies that set the stage for a leap into typography. Lin Yutang, a chinese writer and pioneer in typography, set out to create a typewriter that would allow him along with millions of others to quickly and efficiently type in the Chinese script.12 [135] Lin is hailed as great writer of this time period, but his contributions towards typography are generally not mentioned, even though his machine served as a basis for many of the multilin gual and chinese-language typewriters.13 [137] The two main forms of script revolution revolved around either alphabetization or the simplifying of stroke order; Lin argued that these two concepts were not mutually exclusive, that both could be sued in conjunction to create a modern Chinese script.14 [138] This ideal published in the Princeton University Press, would serve as Lins basis for creating his system of typography. Lin experimented with and studied various models proposed by other linguists at the time, but he found that they were too complicated for the average person, that while work in theory, they failed in practice as the shorthand revolution had decades ago. Lins goal was to create a system that was accessible to the average user, one that was both aesthetically pleasing, as well as functional in purpose.15 [140] Finally, in 1924, he devised his own system which became the cornerstone of the indexical system for his typewriter.16 [140] These notions and discoveries w ere written in an autobiographical format by Lin later in his life, detailing his endeavors as he sought to create a typographical system accessible to everyday people. For this purpose, Lin created a system of alphabetically locating Chinese words based on stroke order rather than phonetic pronunciations. The first stroke of the character was used as the primary reference point, with each subsequent stroke being used to further narrow the search in a sort of alphabetical manner.This differed greatly from the traditional Reverse Cut which used the final, and usually most visible, stroke to classify characters.In this manner, Lin was able to organize the characters in a manner akin to aa, ab, ac, etc. which allowed him to organize his typewriter in the same fashion.17 [141-2] Lins system dismantled the arguments of alphabetic superiority by creating a system that functioned in a similar way using traditional Chinese characters. By figuring out a new mode of accommodating and assimilating alphabetic languages, Lin fused what he though was the best feature of both languages.18 [142] The keyboard of the machine displayed Chinese radicals and not latin characters which had previously antagonized critics of this format.19 [142] Lin detailed how his typewriter would accept input and then produce a selection of characters that would then be chosen by the author of the piece. He had finally created a method to distribute the Chinese language en masse. Indeed, he succeeded at his original goal in theory, but in practice, Lin faced entirely different problems than his predecessors. The simple fact of the matter was that it cost too much to produce. In order to facilitate the complexity of the machine, Lin was forced to order many specialized parts that increased the overhead cost above what was acceptable, to about $1000 per machine. This led to Lin selling the patent to the Mergenthaler corporation in 1951.20 [143] From this point onward, Lin was uninvolved in the legacy of his typewriter. At this point, Tsu switches from referencing Lins personal memoirs and delves into news reports and articles in magazines such as Scientific American to find information about the legacy of the Lins typewriter in modern computing. The patents made their way to IBM and were processed into what became the sinowriter. This machine was the ideal that Lin was unable to meet, it was an inexpensive typewriter that could easily be accessed, even by peopl e that werent able to understand Chinese themselves.21 [145] The ideal of the script revolution that began over half a century ago had been realized. From this point, the sinowriter would undergo several more upgrades which increased its functionalities, but the basic ideal stayed the same. The Chinese script had finally gained an effective recording technique it could use in the modern era. China gained linguistic independence with the creation of effective writing tools in the twentieth century. The script revolution began in the last days of the Qing Dynasty and continued worldwide throughout the length of the twentieth century. The first reforms were blinded by the notions that the script was inferior to western alphabets and only sought to create a shorthand method to supersede the traditional language. This conflicted with the very nature of Chinese society and faded into unpopularity quickly with the rise of typographic machines. A new struggle emerged with the primary focus being the effective translation of Chinese from a written to a printed text. Lin Yutang successfully overcame this enormous obstacle, before allowing others to refine his his invention into a more practical form. The work and effort of thousands of people worldwide is what allowed the sinowriter to become the first easily mass producible method of scripting the Chinese language. Jing Tsu detai ls the events and circumstances that led to the creation of the sinowriter primarily using scholarly articles from both modernity and contemporary sources. With the exception of Lins personal testimonials, Tsu sticks to using verifiable articles to establish an academic atmosphere for the article. The specifics of the accounts of newer sources might differ from what they were originally, but being scholarly articles, they maintain a high standard for their information. The core of the article dictates Chinas struggle towards finding a writing system befitting its entrance into the global stage.