A Cup of Tea by Katherine Mansfield

A Cup of Tea  By Katherine Mansfield Rosemary Fell was not exactly beautiful. No, you couldn't have called her beautiful. Pretty? Well, if you took her to pieces†¦ But why be so cruel as to take anyone to pieces? She was young, brilliant, extremely modem, exquisitely well dressed, amazingly well read in the newest of the new books, and her parties were the most delicious mixture of the really important people and†¦ artists – quaint creatures, discoveries of hers, some of them too terrifying for words, but others quite presentable and amusing. Rosemary had been married two years. She had a duck of a boy.No, not Peter – Michael. And her husband absolutely adored her. They were rich, really rich, not just comfortably well off, which is odious and stuffy and sounds like one's grandparents. But if Rosemary wanted to shop she would go to  Paris  as you and I would go to  Bond Street  . If she wanted to buy flowers, the car pulled up at that perfect shop in Regent Street, and Rosemary inside the shop just gazed in her dazzled, rather exotic way, and said: â€Å"I want those and those and those. Give me four bunches of those. And that jar of roses. Yes, I'll have all the roses in the jar. No, no lilac.I hate lilac. It's got no shape. † The attendant bowed and put the lilac out of sight, as though this was only too true; lilac was dreadfully shapeless. â€Å"Give me those stumpy little tulips. Those red and white ones. † And she was followed to the car by a thin shop-girl staggering under an immense white paper armful that looked like a baby in long clothes†¦. One winter afternoon she had been buying something in a little antique shop in  Curzon Street  . It was a shop she liked. For one thing, one usually had it to oneself. And then the man who kept it was ridiculously fond of serving her.He beamed whenever she came in. He clasped his hands; he was so gratified he could scarcely speak. Flattery, of course. All th e same, there was something†¦ â€Å"You see, madam,† he would explain in his low respectful tones, â€Å"I love my things. I would rather not part with them than sell them to someone who does not appreciate them, who has not that fine feeling which is so rare†¦ † And, breathing deeply, he unrolled a tiny square of blue velvet and pressed it on the glass counter with his pale finger-tips. To-day it was a little box. He had been keeping it for her. He had shown it to nobody as yet.An exquisite little enamel box with a glaze so fine it looked as though it had been baked in cream. On the lid a minute creature stood under a flowery tree, and a more minute creature still had her arms round his neck. Her hat, really no bigger than a geranium petal, hung from a branch; it had green ribbons. And there was a pink cloud like a watchful cherub floating above their heads. Rosemary took her hands out of her long gloves. She always took off her gloves to examine such things . Yes, she liked it very much. She loved it; it was a great duck. She must have it.And, turning the creamy box, opening and shutting it, she couldn't help noticing how charming her hands were against the blue velvet. The shopman, in some dim cavern of his mind, may have dared to think so too. For he took a pencil, leant over the counter, and his pale, bloodless fingers crept timidly towards those rosy, flashing ones, as he murmured gently: â€Å"If I may venture to point out to madam, the flowers on the little lady's bodice. † â€Å"Charming! † Rosemary admired the flowers. But what was the price? For a moment the shopman did not seem to hear. Then a murmur reached her. â€Å"Twenty-eight guineas, madam. â€Å"Twenty-eight guineas. † Rosemary gave no sign. She laid the little box down; she buttoned her gloves again. Twenty-eight guineas. Even if one is rich†¦ She looked vague. She stared at a plump tea-kettle like a plump hen above the shopman's head, and her voice was dreamy as she answered: â€Å"Well, keep it for me – will you? I'll†¦ † But the shopman had already bowed as though keeping it for her was all any human being could ask. He would be willing, of course, to keep it for her for ever. The discreet door shut with a click. She was outside on the step, gazing at the winter afternoon.Rain was falling, and with the rain it seemed the dark came too, spinning down like ashes. There was a cold bitter taste in the air, and the new-lighted lamps looked sad. Sad were the lights in the houses opposite. Dimly they burned as if regretting something. And people hurried by, hidden under their hateful umbrellas. Rosemary felt a strange pang. She pressed her muff against her breast; she wished she had the little box, too, to cling to. Of course the car was there. She'd only to cross the pavement. But still she waited. There are moments, horrible moments in life, when one emerges from shelter and looks out, and it's awful. One oughtn't to give way to them. One ought to go home and have an extra-special tea. But at the very instant of thinking that, a young girl, thin, dark, shadowy – where had she come from? – was standing at Rosemary's elbow and a voice like a sigh, almost like a sob, breathed: â€Å"Madam, may I speak to you a moment? † â€Å"Speak to me? † Rosemary turned. She saw a little battered creature with enormous eyes, someone quite young, no older than herself, who clutched at her coat-collar with reddened hands, and shivered as though she had just come out of the water. â€Å"M-madam, stammered the voice. Would you let me have the price of a cup of tea?â€Å"A cup of tea? † There was something simple, sincere in that voice; it wasn't in the least the voice of a beggar. â€Å"Then have you no money at all? † asked Rosemary. â€Å"None, madam,† came the answer. â€Å"How extraordinary! † Rosemary peered through the dusk and the girl g azed back at her. How more than extraordinary! And suddenly it seemed to Rosemary such an adventure. It was like something out of a novel by Dostoevsky, this meeting in the dusk. Supposing she took the girl home? Supposing she did do one of those things she was always reading about or seeing on the stage, what would happen? It would be thrilling.And she heard herself saying afterwards to the amazement of her friends: â€Å"I simply took her home with me,† as she stepped forward and said to that dim person beside her: â€Å"Come home to tea with me. † The girl drew back startled. She even stopped shivering for a moment. Rosemary put out a hand and touched her arm. â€Å"I mean it,† she said, smiling. And she felt how simple and kind her smile was. â€Å"Why won't you? Do. Come home with me now in my car and have tea. † â€Å"You – you don't mean it, madam,† said the girl, and there was pain in her voice. â€Å"But I do,† cried Rosemary . â€Å"I want you to. To please me. Come along.The girl put her fingers to her lips and her eyes devoured Rosemary. â€Å"You're – you're not taking me to the police station? † she stammered. â€Å"The police station! † Rosemary laughed out. â€Å"Why should I be so cruel? No, I only want to make you warm and to hear – anything you care to tell me. † Hungry people are easily led. The footman held the door of the car open, and a moment later they were skimming through the dusk. â€Å"There! † said Rosemary. She had a feeling of triumph as she slipped her hand through the velvet strap. She could have said, â€Å"Now I've got you,† as she gazed at the little captive she had netted.But of course she meant it kindly. Oh, more than kindly. She was going to prove to this girl that – wonderful things did happen in life, that – fairy godmothers were real, that – rich people had hearts, and that women were sisters. She tu rned impulsively, saying'. â€Å"Don't be frightened. After all, why shouldn't you come back with me? We're both women. If I'm the more fortunate, you ought to expect†¦ † But happily at that moment, for she didn't know how the sentence was going to end, the car stopped. The bell was rung, the door opened, and with a charming, protecting, almost embracing movement, Rosemary drew the other into the hall.Warmth, softness, light, a sweet scent, all those things so familiar to her she never even thought about them, she watched that other receive. It was fascinating. She was like the rich little girl in her nursery with all the cupboards to open, all the boxes to unpack. â€Å"Come, come upstairs,† said Rosemary, longing to begin to be generous. â€Å"Come up to my room. † And, besides, she wanted to spare this poor little thing from being stared at by the servants; she decided as they mounted the stairs she would not even ring to Jeanne, but take off her things by herself. The great things were to be natural!And â€Å"There! † cried Rosemary again, as they reached her beautiful big bedroom with the curtains drawn, the fire leaping on her wonderful lacquer furniture, her gold cushions and the primrose and blue rugs. The girl stood just inside the door; she seemed dazed. But Rosemary didn't mind that. â€Å"Come and sit down,† she cried, dragging her big chair up to the fire, â€Å"m this comfy chair. Come and get warm. You look so dreadfully cold. † â€Å"I daren't, madam,† said the girl, and she edged backwards. â€Å"Oh, please,† – Rosemary ran forward – â€Å"you mustn't be frightened, you mustn't, really.Sit down, when I've taken off my things we shall go into the next room and have tea and be cozy. Why are you afraid? † And gently she half pushed the thin figure into its deep cradle. . But there was no answer. The girl stayed just as she had been put, with her hands by her sides a nd her mouth slightly open. To be quite sincere, she looked rather stupid. But Rosemary wouldn't acknowledge it. She leant over her, saying: â€Å"Won't you take off your hat? Your pretty hair is all wet. And one is so much more comfortable without a hat, isn't one? † There was a whisper that sounded like â€Å"Very good, adam,† and the crushed hat was taken off. â€Å"And let me help you off with your coat, too,† said Rosemary. The girl stood up. But she held on to the chair with one hand and let Rosemary pull. It was quite an effort. The other scarcely helped her at all. She seemed to stagger like a child, and the thought came and went through Rosemary's mind, that if people wanted helping they must respond a little, just a little, otherwise it became very difficult indeed. And what was she to do with the coat now? She left it on the floor, and the hat too.She was just going to take a cigarette off the mantelpiece when the girl said quickly, but so lightly and strangely: â€Å"I'm very sorry, madam, but I'm going to faint. I shall go off, madam, if I don't have something. † â€Å"Good heavens, how thoughtless I am! † Rosemary rushed to the bell. â€Å"Tea! Tea at once! And some brandy immediately! † The maid was gone again, but the girl almost cried out: â€Å"No, I don't want no brandy. * I never drink brandy. It's a cup of tea I want, madam. † And she burst into tears. It was a terrible and fascinating moment.Rosemary knelt beside her chair. â€Å"Don't cry, poor little thing,† she said. Don't cry. † And she gave the other her lace handkerchief. She really was touched beyond words. She put her arm round those thin, bird-like shoulders. Now at last the other forgot to be shy, forgot everything except that they were both women, and gasped out: â€Å"I can't go on no longer like this. I can't bear it. I can't bear it. I shall do away with myself. I can't bear no more. † â€Å"You shan't hav e to. I'll look after you. Don't cry any more. Don't you see what a good thing it was that you met me? We'll have tea and you'll tell me everything. And I shall arrange something. I promise. Do stop crying.It's so exhausting. Please! † The other did stop just in time for Rosemary to get up before the tea came. She had the table placed between them. She plied the poor little creature with everything, all the sandwiches, all the bread and butter, and every time her cup was empty she filled it with tea, cream and sugar. People always said sugar was so nourishing. As for herself she didn't eat; she smoked and looked away tactfully so that the other should not be shy. And really the effect of that slight meal was marvelous. When the tea-table was carried away a new being, a light, frail creature with tangled air, dark lips, deep, lighted eyes, lay back in the big chair in a kind of sweet languor, looking at the blaze. Rosemary lit a fresh cigarette; it was time to begin. â€Å"And when did you have your last meal? † she asked softly. But at that moment the door-handle turned. â€Å"Rosemary, may I come in? † It was Philip. â€Å"Of course. † He came in. â€Å"Oh, I'm so sorry,† he said, and stopped and stared. â€Å"It's quite all right,† said Rosemary, smiling.â€Å"This is my friend, Miss _† â€Å"Smith, madam,† said the languid figure, who was strangely still and unafraid. â€Å"Smith,† said Rosemary. â€Å"We are going to have a little talk. â€Å"Oh yes,† said Philip. â€Å"Quite,† and his eye caught sight of the coat and hat on the floor. He came over to the fire and turned his back to it. â€Å"It's a beastly afternoon,† he said curiously, still looking at that listless figure, looking at its hands and boots, and then at Rosemary again. â€Å"Yes, isn't it? † said Rosemary enthusiastically. â€Å"Vile. † Philip smiled his charming smile. â€Å"As a matter of fa ct,† said he, â€Å"I wanted you to come into the library for a moment. Would you? Will Miss Smith excuse us? † The big eyes were raised to him, but Rosemary answered for her: â€Å"Of course she will. And they went out of the room together. â€Å"I say,† said Philip, when they were alone. â€Å"Explain. Who is she? What does it all mean? † Rosemary, laughing, leaned against the door and said: â€Å"I picked her up in  Curzon Street  . Really. She's a real pick-up. She asked me for the price of a cup of tea, and I brought her home with  me. † â€Å"But what on earth are you going to do with her? † cried Philip. â€Å"Be nice to her,† said Rosemary quickly. â€Å"Be frightfully nice to her. Look after her. I don't know how. We haven't talked yet. But show her – treat her – make her feel -† â€Å"My darling girl,† said Philip, â€Å"you're quite mad, you know.It simply can't be done. † â€Å"I k new you'd say that,† retorted Rosemary. Why not? I want to. Isn't that a reason? And besides, one's always reading about these things. I decided -† â€Å"But,† said Philip slowly, and he cut the end of a cigar, â€Å"she's so astonishingly pretty. † â€Å"Pretty? † Rosemary was so surprised that she blushed. â€Å"Do you think so? I – I hadn't thought about it. † â€Å"Good Lord! † Philip struck a match. â€Å"She's absolutely lovely. Look again, my child. I was bowled over when I came into your room just now. However†¦ I think you're making a ghastly mistake. Sorry, darling, if I'm crude and all that.But let me know if Miss Smith is going to dine with us in time for me to look up The Milliner's Gazette. † â€Å"You absurd creature! † said Rosemary, and she went out of the library, but not back to her bedroom. She went to her writing-room and sat down at her desk. Pretty! Absolutely lovely! Bowled over! Her hea rt beat like a heavy bell. Pretty! Lovely! She drew her check-book towards her. But no, checks would be no use, of course. She opened a drawer and took out five pound notes, looked at them, put two back, and holding the three squeezed in her hand, she went back to her bedroom.Half an hour later Philip was still in the library, when Rosemary came in. â€Å"I only wanted to tell you,† said she, and she leaned against the door again and looked at him with her dazzled exotic gaze, â€Å"Miss Smith won't dine with us to-night. † Philip put down the paper. â€Å"Oh, what's happened? Previous engagement? † Rosemary came over and sat down on his knee. â€Å"She insisted on going,† said she, â€Å"so I gave the poor little thing a present of money. I couldn't keep her against her will, could I? † she added softly. Rosemary had just done her hair, darkened her eyes a little and put on her pearls.She put up her hands and touched Philip's cheeks. â€Å"Do you like me? † said she, and her tone, sweet, husky, troubled him. â€Å"I like you awfully,† he said, and he held her tighter. â€Å"Kiss me. † There was a pause. Then Rosemary said dreamily: â€Å"I saw a fascinating little box to-day. It cost twenty-eight guineas. May I have it? † Philip jumped her on his knee. â€Å"You may, little wasteful one,† said he. But that was not really what Rosemary wanted to say. â€Å"Philip,† she whispered, and she pressed his head against her bosom, â€Å"am I pretty? â€Å"

The Wounded Platoon

Being currently in the military I have mixed reactions when viewing this video. I perform the same role as â€Å"Doc† Krebs did, but for the Air Force Reserve. There Is a lot to consider when discussing this documentary. It was well constructed In the sense that those interviewed held various positions representing nearly every step of the larger process that is the war. First I would like to discuss the issue of battle itself. Few of our nation's military actually sees combat, it is largely support for those who do. Of those who are placed In a combat situation the number of those is sustained combat day after day Is even fewer.Infantry during an offensive tactical plan are typically those who have suffered the worst. To make matters worse this particular war is extremely taxing of a person's psyche. Unlike most wars of the past the enemy is not readily identifiable. They wear no uniforms they blend in with the population. Threatening the locals into keeping quiet about which buildings they are in is not uncommon. It is no wonder that returning soldiers are scanning rooftops or firing at the first male they see viewing the site of an explosion. Who Is to say they didn't set It off?Often the explosion from an DIED Is the first wave of an oncoming attack and the gunfire is not far behind. It is easy to say that they should know better sitting on your couch watching this video. But nine months into a deployment especially one where you are on the offensive, not all people are strong enough to know the difference in that split second. The truth is we will never know. Many of the soldiers Interviewed trace the root of their problems back to the death of SST Huh. This was the first of many multiple traumas they encountered. They ere not yet numb to the effects of war.Numbness In itself Is a survival mechanism; as mentioned by a troop in the video, that is necessary to perform at the level needed. In that instant it's kill or be killed, nothing else matters. I t also was especially tragic since the SST that was killed was so well respected and liked. Some of the members did seek help and this is where we get our first glimpse of the larger problem. The speech given by George Bush sending an additional ASK troops Into battle sets off a chain reaction. There are only 25% of young people In this nation that are insider â€Å"fit† to join the military.This is due to a number of reasons such as weight, fitness level, health status, previous surgeries and intelligence level to name a few. It also takes a considerable amount of time from the start of a recruit signing the papers to get them to basic training, which can take months in itself. Then they must be able to complete that successfully and move on and successfully complete their lob specific training. There Is additional training specific to the region and special tactics that also must be completed before a member is even eligible to deploy.That is even if they are infantry as pr eviously mentioned, most of the military does not perform that role. So this brings us to the decisions made by the top level command. Does the military typically allow criminals? No. Do they allow those with pending charges to deploy? No. Do they allow those who are mentally unstable to deploy without first getting treatment? No. Until this war they didn't allow All of these factors security threat overseas, and it worked. A multitude of factors that will forever remain unknown to everyone except the few who made the rules and we will fully know what he rational was.With that being said when the president says you must send this many men, you do. In an ideal world there would be enough to go around. Sure they could have pulled from another base. But what the video doesn't address is anyone else's deployment cycle. This platoon was Just one of many in the same situation. Do you send someone over to Iraq for another year 2 months after they have been reunited with their family? The g eneral population and the vast majority of the military itself do not know the manning of the force or who is actually eligible to deploy out of those who are in. It is certainly a tough call to make.I'm certain that those who made it knew that there would be a downfall in some regard. In this case it is the medical system. The onset of this year we Just completed, has saw a tremendous surge in life- changing injuries and service connected disabilities. As mentioned in the video it is an abnormal situation to be placed in. Many of those who were shown in the video were deemed unfit for continued military service following their deployment, specifically for PETS. A diagnosis of PETS cannot be made initially after a traumatic vent, the symptoms must be present for several months and disrupt daily functioning.Irritability, a sense of being on guard, short temper, easily startled and nightmares are some of a plethora of symptoms experienced. Access to care is another shortfall mentioned in this video. Some of the soldiers did not seek treatment due to stigma. Others such as Nash sought treatment too late after he had resorted to drugs and alcohol first. I will say that the military did fail them in the sense of the initial treatment. I wish I knew why this was the case. I can only speculate that it is due to not being fully aware of the tuition, money and a lack of available resources to treat these members.This brings us to another failure not mentioned in the video. It is unclear what role the soldiers next in their chain of command (direct supervisor) played in this process. They could have advocated for the member, but more importantly they could have simply been there and stuck with them through every aspect of their treatment giving them support at every turn. It is impossible to tell from the video if an attempt was made and the supervisor was shut out, or if one of these men portrayed was the supervisor of the others. That is how the leadership system brok e down.There is absolutely no way that the commander is responsible directly. Commanders are only informed of a patient seeking mental health treatment and they follow the recommendations given by those who actually evaluated the patient. They are given zero information on the diagnosis. Secondly they would be completely unaware of their subordinates behavior off duty. The failure of the mental health system in the military is not surprising. The VA system is shambles and has been before the influx of patients since the onset of this ar.Staffing and overcrowding is commonplace, at least it would appear the federal government cannot turn a blind eye anymore and is addressing this issue. The mental health system has strict rules about duty limitations and determines who is eligible for continued service based on condition but it is obvious in this case they if this process was started on these members as it can take months for a member to be considered at maximal medical improvement. It is only at this point after the government has done everything in their power to aid the member that they can aka the decision to retain or discharge the individual.They simply may not have had the time, or the member may have forced leadership's hand by committing other faults such as felonies as evidenced in the video. It is certainly disheartening to see our military portrayed in this fashion although for some it is a reality. Despite what is shown in this video I feel that our mental health in the US military is performing better than ever before and operates at a high level. Certainly they could use more resources and staff but that cost money that may not be slotted for this particular concern.Budget drives every action in Washington and sometimes it takes a crisis before those who serve us will listen. It will take years to rectify the VA system, and there will also be problems and people lost in the system as they try to seek help as they are exiting the military by choic e or otherwise. I am proud to serve in the military and help those who are wounded, physically or psychologically and will continue to do so. You must have faith that those above you are making the best and most informed decisions they can, even though you will never understand the factors that went into such a decision.

Pre-Linguistic Development Essay

As linguistic development designates the stage when children are able to manipulate verbal symbols, it should be apparent that pre-linguistic development refers to the stage before the child is able to manipulate such symbols. Consequently, this stage is sometimes called the pre-symbolic stage. Pre-linguistic development, therefore, concerns itself with precursors to the development of symbolic skills and typically covers the period from birth to around 13 months of age. Four stages can be identified: * Vegetative sounds (0-2 months): the natural sounds that babies make, e.  g. crying, coughing, burping, and swallowing. * Cooing and laughter (2-5 months): these vocalizations usually occur when the baby is comfortable and content. They are typically made up of vowels and consonants. * Vocal play (4-8 months): the infant engages in longer and more continuous streams of either vowel or consonant sounds. * Babbling (6-13 months): at least two sub-stages are identified – reduplicated babbling, in which the child produces a series of Consonant-Vowel (CV) syllables with the same consonant being repeated (e.  g. wa-wa-wa, mu-mu-mu) and non-reduplicated babbling, consisting of either CVC vocalizations (e. g. mom, pip) or VCV vocalizations (e. g. ama, ooboo). [See Speech Development] Up to this stage of development much of what the child produces is really no more than a sort of verbal play. The child is practicing individual sounds, and sound sequences, and gaining the motor skills necessary to produce what will eventually be considered as actual adult words. So, young children make various sounds and others then assign meaning to these. So, for example, a child may reach for an object whilst at the same time saying ‘m’. An adult may interpret this as the child wanting help to get the object. The child, having realized that this combination of physical gesture (reaching) and articulating ‘m’ prompts an adult to pass the desired object, may go on to repeat this behavior. The child is learning that certain actions that he or she performs can be used to control his or her environment. These changes come about because the child’s ability to focus their attention on their caregiver and on objects becomes more refined as they mature. For example, from 0-2 months there is shared attentiveness in which only the baby and caregiver form part of any interactive event – all other elements are ignored. From 2-6 months there is interpersonal engagement when the baby is conceptually able to differentiate their own self from the caregiver and focus attention on each other and on the ‘message’ of the communicative event. Then, from about 6-15 months there is a shift such that the child is now able to focus attention on objects (e. g. cups, toys, books) and understand that the communicative event is focused on these. This is sometimes called joint object involvement. It is, however, the emergence of words from about 12 months onwards that signals the onset of linguistic development. This is the stage when there is symbolic communication emerges. Linguistic Development Linguistic development occurs at what is called the One Word Stage. It is at this stage that we can properly talk about a child’sexpressive language, i. e. the words used to express emotions, feelings, wants, needs, ideas, and so on. This should not be confused with the child’s understanding or receptive language. The two are, of course, closely related. However, a child will typically understand much more than he or she can actually express and a child’s expressive language, therefore, lags behind its comprehension by a few months. Early One Word Stage (12-19 months) Before the emergence of the first ‘adult’ words the child will use specific sound combinations in particular situations. The sound combinations are not conventional adult words but they appear to be being used consistently to express meaning. For example, if the child says mu every time he or she is offered a bottle of milk then this may be considered to be a ‘real’ word. Similarly, if the child says bibi each time he or she is given a biscuit then, even though the sound combination does not represent an exact adult word, it would still be considered an early word. These early words are called protowords. The child will also be using gesture together with these specific vocalizations in order to obtain needs, express emotions, and so on. The important point is that the child is consistent in his or her use of a particular ‘word’. Later One Word Stage (14-24 months) The words used by the child are now more readily identifiable as actual adult words. A variety of single words are used to express his or her feelings, needs, wants, and so on. This is the stage at which, amongst other things, the child begins to name and label the objects and people around them. Examples include common nouns such as cup dog hat proper nouns such as Dad Sarah Rover and verbs such as kiss go sit The child may also use a few social words such as no bye-bye please The child will not yet have developed all the adult speech sounds and so the words used are unlikely to sound exactly as an adult would say them. However, they are beginning to approximate more closely to an adult model and they are beginning to be used consistently. At the end of the One Word Stage the child should have a much larger vocabulary, should be able to sustain a simple conversation, be using several adult speech sounds appropriately, and be conveying meaning through the use of single words in combination with facial expression, gesture and actions. These single words will express a variety of meaning. The next stage in the child’s development of expressive language is that he or she begins to combine two words together into simplephrases. Two Word Stage (20-30 months) It is at this stage that the child begins to produce two-word combinations similar to the following. daddy car shoe on where Katie Note that a variety of different word classes may be combined: * For example, daddy car involves the combination of two words from the same word class of nouns one noun (daddy) with another noun (car). * However, shoe on consists of two words from two different word classes, nouns and prepositions: one noun (shoe) plus a preposition (on). * Also, where Katie uses a so-called interrogative pronoun (where) together with a proper noun (Katie). In fact, a high percentage of these two-word combinations incorporate nouns. This is not surprising, as the child has spent a lot of time learning the names of objects and people. These are the important things in his or her environment and the things that are most likely to be manipulated, talked about, and so on. They are often the concrete, permanent things to which the child can most readily relate. In addition, at this Two Word Stage there is also prolific use of verbs (e. g. go, run, drink, eat). Three Word Stage (28-42 months). As its name implies, at this next stage of development children extend their two-word utterances by incorporating at least another word. In reality children may add up to two more words, thereby creating utterances as long as four words. The child makes greater use of pronouns (e. g. I, you, he, she, they, me) at this stage, e. g. me kiss mummy you make toy he hit ball It is at this stage that the child also begins to use the articles the, a and an. At first their use is inconsistent but as the child approaches 42 months of age they become more consolidated in their utterances, e. g. me kick a ball you give the dolly he throw an orange. In addition, it is common for the prepositions in and on to be incorporated between two nouns or pronouns, e. g. mummy on bed you in it Sarah in bath Four Word Stage (34-48 months) From about 34 months the child begins to combine between four to six words in any one utterance. There is greater use of contrast between prepositions such as in, on and under and adjectives such as big and little, e. g. mummy on little bed daddy under big car daddy playing with the little ball Complex Utterance Stage (48-60 months) This stage is typified by longer utterances, with the child regularly producing utterances of over six words in length. It is at this stage that the concept of past and future time develops and this is expressed linguistically in a child’s utterances, e. g. we all went to see Ryan yesterday [past time] Daddy is going to get a shoe [future time] Robert stopped and kicked a good goal [past time] Some of the more conceptually difficult prepositions such as behind, in front and next to also become established at this stage. The child will also be using the contracted negative, e. g. can’t rather than can not, didn’t rather than did not, won’t rather than will not, and so on. Example utterances include the following. Helen can’t go to granddad’s house Connor didn’t stop crying he won’t eat up all his dinner for mummy There is a lot of controversy about just when the Complex Utterance Stage is completed. Some researchers claim that at five years of age a child has developed all of the major adult linguistic features and that the only real progression beyond this stage is the further acquisition of vocabulary items. Other researchers, however, argue that children up to the age of 12 years are still developing adult sentence structure. As indicated, our overview of language development has focused on how the child develops longer and longer utterances, i. e. it has concentrated on expressive language. It should be noted, however, that there is a parallel development of comprehension, or receptive language. So, for example, at the Early One Word Stage the child is capable of understanding a few single words spoken by others as well as speaking a few words. Similarly, at the Three Word Stage the child can also comprehend the four to six word utterances spoken by others as well as producing such utterances themselves. In summary, the child will need to be able to comprehend utterances at least at the same level as those that he or she is able to construct and use expressively. In reality, we find that a child’s level of understanding actually precedes their level of expression. That is to say, a typically developing child will always understand more than they can express. The extent to which the development of receptive language precedes expressive language is highly variable and it is not possible to define any precise norms. The following table summarizes the stages of early development of expressive language. Precursors to Language (Pre-linguistic)| 0-2 months| 2-5 months| 4-8 months| 6-13 months| reflexive crying and vegetative sounds| cooing and laughter| vocal play| babbling – reduplicated – non-reduplicated| (Symbolic) Language| 12-19 months| 14-24 months| 20-30 months| 28-42 months| 34-48 months| 48-60 months| Early One Word Stage(protowords)| Later One Word Stage| Two Word Stage| Three Word Stage| Four Word Stage| Complex Utterance Stage| Table 1. Early Development of Expressive Language.

Discuss the role of wisdom in true virtue according to Meno and the Essay

Discuss the role of wisdom in true virtue according to Meno and the Phaedo - Essay Example d therefore she abstains from bodily pleasures-not from a desire of having more or greater ones, but because she knows that only when calm and free from the dominion of the body can she behold the light of truth.† (Plato (b)10) A unique concept of good and evil is put forward in Phaedo. The author discounts courageous acts if they are performed to avoid bigger dangers. Similarly, author plays down temperate behavior if there is an accompanying desire to achieve sensual pleasures because of such temperance (Plato (b) 7). Phaedo propagates the idea of life beyond death by distinguishing between body and soul and how virtues applied wisely can lead to liberation of soul. In Meno, Socrates is referred pondering over the question what can be considered the goods of the soul. According to Socrates, they are ‘temperance,’ ‘justice,’ ‘courage,’ ‘quickness of apprehension,’ ‘memory,’ ‘magnanimity’, and the lik e. Interesting to note is the observation that such good qualities are not knowledge, but of ‘another sort’. They are sometimes ‘profitable’ and sometimes ‘hurtful’. Socrates says that when a man has no sense he is hurt by courage, and when man applies courage with sense, he is profited. Socrates opines that the same logic of applying sense can be stretched to other good qualities like ‘temperance’ and ‘quickness of apprehension’. Socrates remarks that activities learned or done with the application of sense are ‘profitable,’ without sense are ‘hurtful.’ (Plato (a) 37) Socrates holds forth that all efforts and endurance under the supervision of wisdom have a happy ending and under the influence of folly, the opposite. Taking forward his argument, Socrates examines that if ‘virtue’ is a characteristic of soul and is... In Phaedo, it is contended that when alive, the soul should try to control pleasures related with the sense organs and body in which it is rebuked to be animate and from which it seeks to liberate itself.Phaedo makes distinction between souls that are not liberated. Some who are used to ‘violence’ and ‘extreme sensuality’ takes the form of likes of an ‘ass’ or’ wolf.’ However, for someone seeking liberation, even such gentle forms making eligible for some earthly happiness is not acceptable.A unique concept of good and evil is put forward in Phaedo. The author discounts courageous acts if they are performed to avoid bigger dangers. Socrates in Meno contends that after deep thought, he has come to a believe there are perhaps no teachers of virtue. According to Socrates those who want to learn any skill takes course to a teacher who is expert in that field. If one wants to learn flute playing, one takes recourse to a teacher who is expert in flute playing. In Meno, it is argued that true opinion is as good a model to rectify action as knowledge. Socrates makes a distinction between knowledge and opinion by giving an example that if someone knows the location of Larisa and leads other people to Larisa, then he is a good guide.Also, if a person has a right judgment about the means, but had never been to Larisa (the destination to be reached) should also be a good guide.

Depression Article Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Depression Review - Article Example This study wanted to provide the relationship between functional social support (FSS) and psychological capital (PC), with anxiety and stress symptoms among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). The study says that it is very beneficial to employ PLWHA since through employment they get salary and wages that they use to improve the quality of their life, they become happier and they can go to hospital to be treated whenever they feel sick. For those who are not employed and are living with HIV/AIDS, they cannot have a quality life, they cannot be happy and they lack the money to use for treatment whenever they are sick. Even though benefits that are gained from the employment of PLWHA, there a lot of unemployment cases in the world. The main reason for this is psychological distress, mental, physical and other factors of social life and population (Liu et al., 326). When we talk of spiritual capital (PC), we just mean such things like efficacy, believing in a positive future and resilience that are beneficial in praising the performance of workers and congratulating them. We also considering whether or not they are getting satisfied at their place of work. In this article, the researcher conducted a cross-section survey in Liaoning Province which has a population of 43 million people between the month of December in the year 2010 and the month of April in the year 2011. In this sample, there were 360 persons living with HIV/AIDS and were fully employed, between 18 and 16 years of age. The two strategies that could help in gathering data were giving out questionnaires to the sample and the application of informed consent. After distributing out the questionnaire, 320 were fully filled, and they were analyzed and later results were released. In the process of conducting analysis, those concepts and methods that were used are Pearson’s correlation,

Assessment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Assessment - Essay Example As a result, assessment reports on applied standards, describing the standards as applied in the learning process. It therefore forms a basis for determining existence and the level of accountability in the learning process (Popham, 2011). It is however not always fair to use assessment to determine accountability because the approach largely relies on two factors, the teacher’s responsibility and the learner’s responsibility and it is however difficult to identify and quantify each party’s responsibility in a learning process. Assessment may therefore not determine each party’s exact level of accountability (Popham, 2011). The relationship between assessment and evaluation is their common scope of obtaining information about a subject. The two processes are however different with respect to the extent of their scopes. While assessment aims at obtaining information about a subject, evaluation extends beyond acquisition of information and aims at making a decision on the subject’s value. An assessment can for example be used to observe a subject while an evaluation can be used in conducting a test for qualifying a subject (Popham,

The Future of Drinking Water Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

The Future of Drinking Water - Essay Example The primary sector comprises the primary production of raw materials or food, while the secondary sector concerns on the processing or refining of the produced goods or raw materials. As to the distribution of the finished products, the whole concern of it lies on the tertiary sector. However, all of these sectors require the availability or abundance of quality drinking water for them to function smoothly as possible. For instance, a quality and abundant drinking water source is necessary to ensure the sustainability of the basic needs in life, and consistency in the achievement of human health, and other related human needs. Furthermore, the availability of quality drinking water is necessary in order to successfully produce food or raw materials for the production of other products in the secondary sector. For example, a quality drinking water is necessary in the livestock industry so that there will be quality produced products that can be readily used in the processing industry. The processing industry on the other hand would require availability of clean and excellent water supply as integral component of the production of high quality standard processed foods. The above illustrations just simply depict the importance of drinking water in the production of raw materials and down to the processing and production of secondary product offerings.

Fair system of international trade Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Fair system of international trade - Essay Example However, the economic, legal and socio-political disparity in countries has created significant problems and challenges to such business thus making it difficult to continue with operations1. Different countries have different laws governing the operation of foreign businesses and this has been demonstrated to create inequality and unfairness in the market. Some laws favour domestic firms and make it difficult for the international companies and organisations to compete favourably with domestic firms. The existence of laws and political systems that favour one group as opposed to the other affect natural competitive advantage that organisations should gain in the market and bestow upon domestic markets undue advantage over the others. Apart from legal systems that affect operations of multinationals, other forms of inequalities exist that make it difficult to gain a completely free system devoid of legal, political and socio-economic interference. Although having a completely fair sy stem of trade seems far-fetched and utopian given the existing inequalities between countries, trade strategies employed by developed countries and huge global corporation can be fashioned in such a way as to allow a fairer system of trade. As such, it is not that a fairer system of trade cannot exist, but that the people, businesses and countries benefiting from the current system of trade do not want such a system to exist. As long as the economic and development interests of certain powerful countries come above the interest of other less powerful countries, such unfair trade will persist and the possibility of change for the better will seem not possible. Different countries in different parts of the world have different political and legal stages of development and maturity, which may differ with those of other countries. This affects the ability of other multinationals especially from developing countries to competitively conduct their business without facing the challenges of the legal and socio-economic systems. A number of factors make it impossible to gain a fair business environment in the global sphere and these majorly depend on the economic development and political maturity of the country2. Most developed countries have enacted laws that although are aimed to protect the interest of the citizens, affect the smooth development and operations of international trade around the world. International trade can only be complete if a country allows for free movement of goods and services as exports and imports. However, this is not the case in a number of countries including the United States and Canada who have enacted a number of legislations that make it impossible to achieve a fair trade system3. From 1930a, the United States has enacted a number of laws, which are aimed at eliminating or reducing the overall volume of international trade in the country by restricting the amount of goods that can be imported into the country. The enactment of the mu ltilateral trade agreement, the tariff act of 1984the omnibus trade act of 2988 and the antidumping act of 1921 made it impossible for multinationals to increase their operations by increasing imports into the country. The American legislations that have been used to protect the country and domestic firms from competition by multinationals has been widely viewed as being protectionist in nature and this increases unfair business practices in the global market4. Apart from the legal differences that do exist between countries, other factors such as the social aspects of a country affects the performance of foreign companies and give the domestic firms undue advantage. Citizens naturally feel at ease with products

The Approaches to Environmental Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The Approaches to Environmental Ethics - Essay Example As it tackles the natural environment, deep ecology concerns itself with all organisms – both plants and animals – within the biosphere and promotes equality, particularly in regard to the right to live of all organisms as a fundamental value. The deep ecology approaches to environmental ethics include â€Å"self realization,† â€Å"biocentrism† or â€Å"anti-anthropocentrism† as these ecologists espouse democracy in the biosphere among all organisms within (Devall etc 1995, p67). Self-realization beyond the concept of the modern Western self or for a narrow sense of individual salvation and that it supposedly has further maturity as it goes further than the egocentric cultural assumptions, values and conventional wisdom in its treatment of the environment (Devall etc 1995, p67). The main argument of the biocentric approach, meanwhile, is that â€Å"all things in the biosphere have an equal right to live and blossom and to reach their own individual forms of unfolding and self-realization within the larger Self-realization† (Devall etc 1995, p67).

RESEARCH PROPOSAL ON PRISON POPULATION AND RATES OF INCARCERATION IN Paper

PROPOSAL ON PRISON POPULATION AND RATES OF INCARCERATION IN OUR COUNTRY - Research Paper Example While crime level appears to be driving some of this growth, much of it is connected to sentencing rules and guidelines, the length of sentences, and a general public intolerance of crimes. Racism is still prevalent in America and this is reflected in levels of sentencing and incarceration as well as the proportion of minority races in prisons. This study looks at minority races within prisons, what factors drove them to commit crimes, what their background is and what their sentencing severity was like compared to other races. To do this, face-to-face interviews with prisoners and written questionnaires will be undertaken at many prisons across the country. This attempts to provide a snapshot of the current prison population in the US, how the racial minorities are distributed and whether there are differences in their sentencing and imprisonment compared to other races. Keywords: Prison population, incarcerations, disparity, sentencing policies, African American, racial minority. C ontents Prison Population and Rates of Incarceration in the United States of America among Racial Minority Populations 1 A Research Proposal 1 Abstract 2 Prison populations are rapidly growing with no leveling off of growth rate in sight in the United States. ... 2 To do this, face-to-face interviews with prisoners and written questionnaires will be undertaken at many prisons across the country. This attempts to provide a snapshot of the current prison population in the US, how the racial minorities are distributed and whether there are differences in their sentencing and imprisonment compared to other races. 2 Contents 3 Introduction 4 Literature Review 5 Why are Prison Populations so High? 5 What is the Connection between Crime and Prison Population? 7 How is Minority Races Represented? 8 The population of the US is not uniform, and there are many minority groups widely present. While there have been many increases in equality of treatment across races, it is clear that there is still some way to go. The historical election of President Barack Obama into office, making him our first black president has played a large role in the rights and the equal treatment of minority races, however there are still many socioeconomic examples of racial d ifferences in factors such as employment and rate of incarceration . 8 The rates of incarceration have not risen at the same rates for different minorities. For African Americans the rate of increase has been 184% while it has been 235% for Hispanics. In contrast for non-Hispanic whites the rate has been 164% . A strong example of this is the imprisonment rate of young African Americans. Throughout the country an average of three African Americans for every four serves some time in prison. This is a high rate, and is not proportionate to rates for non-Hispanic whites . 9 The question remains, what is driving the high rates of imprisonment for racial

Leadership - Communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Leadership - Communication - Essay Example Yet the most effective managers, those whose executive action is likely to have the highest level of value within an organization, have the qualities of leadership in addition to management skill. Strategic decision-making depends upon those who have both of these skill sets. An executive who understands the mechanical nuances of his/her organization and is able to manipulate processes to achieve desired outcomes is an effective manager. Add to that the ability to articulate a vision and to influence others to work toward it and you have an effective manager with leadership qualities. This manager, trained to exercise independent, critical judgment, is well equipped for strategic decision-making (Hellwich, 2004). The characteristics of leadership that foster strategic decision-making are often tied to the personal characteristics or qualities of the executive. Leadership is more ability than a skill, although there has been significant debate about whether leadership characteristics can be learned. The dimensions of a leader fall into the categories of charisma, vision, interpersonal skill, and ethical responsibility, to name but a few. These qualities, when possessed by an organization's executives, are strongly linked to strategic decision-making. Without them, an executive is merely a high level manager or administrator without the ability to impact the strategic direction of the organization. Leadership is somew

Referring to both pharmaceutical Essay Example for Free

Referring to both pharmaceutical Essay Referring to both pharmaceutical and tobacco companies, explain how transnational corporations can influence the health of people in countries at different stages of development (15) Both pharmaceutical and tobacco companies can be transnational corporations and some wield enormous international power and influence covering over one hundred countries with billions of pounds worth of profit; in 2009, GlaxoSmithKline had a net income of approximately. 6 billion! Some corporations have, for example, used their profits to help fight widespread diseases in less economically developed countries (LEDCs), such as GlaxoSmithKlines help in the fight against Lymphatic Filariasis in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Some have set up health programmes in more economically developed countries (MEDCs) to reduce common health problems in these areas, such as different types of cancer. However, some corporations only supply people with the means to deteriorate their health, such as some tobacco companies like British American Tobacco, especially in LEDCs, but both pharmaceutical tobacco companies play an important role in the health of the worlds people. A pharmaceutical company is a company, which develops, produces and markets drugs licenced for use as medications, so obviously these companies play a huge role in the health of people worldwide as they provide medication against diseases that would harm health. In LEDCs, medicines can be very expensive and in some countries in the world, in sub-Saharan Africa for example, peoples incomes may be so minuscule that they may not even be able to afford food let alone medicine. Pharmaceutical companies make two types of drug: branded and generic. Branded drugs are three to thirty times more expensive than generic drugs and so in LEDCs they are out of the majoritys reach, but they are patented and their chemical composition cannot be copied for twenty years; this means that should another company wish to reproduce the specific drug so it can be made available at a cheaper price for the market in LEDCs, it is not possible due to the patent. Therefore this has negatively affected peoples health in LEDCs, as the majority of deaths from disease in LEDCs (excluding HIV/AIDS) are curable with modern-day medication but it is how the medication is sold by pharmaceutical companies that prevents medication getting to these countries. Cheaper drugs to combat these common diseases cannot be produced as some pharmaceutical companies patented their branded drugs to increase their profits and eliminate competition from rival pharmaceutical companies. Although pharmaceutical companies may be harming the health of populations in LEDCs by patenting their drugs for twenty years, many of their drugs are manufactured in factories that are located within LEDCs as they are often far cheaper than producing drugs in MEDCs as wage regulations are much stricter and land is much more expensive. Pharmaceutical companies want to manufacture as much product as they can to maximise profit and so, for example, Bayer HealthCare, whose headquarters is in Germany, manufacture drugs in Morocco, Indonesia, Columbia, Guatemala and El Salvador all of which are LEDCs. The fact that vast quantities of drugs are produced in these countries means that the pharmaceutical companies will need a large, low-skilled workforce to do menial jobs in the factory. In comparison to salaries in MEDCs, the workers in LEDCs are paid far less, but it is much more than many people would have been able to earn before their jobs in the factories, as many of these LEDCs rely heavily on agriculture which is often a very low-paid form of employment. With this higher salary, people may be able to afford healthcare and the more expensive branded drugs that they are helping to manufacture. Some workers healthcare may even be partly paid for by their employer, therefore helping better the health of the population in LEDCs. Pharmaceutical companies, such as GlaxoSmithKline and Bayer HealthCare, are thought to have a social and moral responsibility to help in the fight against diseases if they find a cure for them during their drug research and development. Diseases such as Malaria, Yellow Fever, Tuberculosis and African Sleeping Sickness are all curable with drugs produced by pharmaceutical companies. However, these companies are in a widely capitalist industry that wants to maximise profits wherever possible and providing free medical care for people in LEDCs is often not done, but GlaxoSmithKline and Bayer HealthCare have started a revolution in this field by showing that by using only a small fraction of their vast profits they can help improve the health of millions of people worldwide. GlaxoSmithKline, for example, discovered albendazole in 1972 and was found to be effective against roundworms and tapeworms which caused Lymphatic Filariasis (LF), a disease that causes permanent disability and currently 120 million people are infected with the disease in Asia, Africa and South America. Since 2008, GlaxoSmithKline donated over 1. 4 billion albendazole treatments to 48 LEDCs. Their aim is to donate as much albendazole as required to treat the 1 billion people in 83 countries at risk from LF. They also joined the Global Alliance to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis (GAELF) in 2000 as a founding member and work together with governments as well as non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to eliminate LF. This is just one example of the work that pharmaceutical companies have done in LEDCs to improve the health of the inhabitants by providing free medication at the cost of a small proportion of their multi-billion pound annual profit. Pharmaceutical companies have had a large presence in LEDCs in recent history and so have many tobacco companies, traced back to trade and colonial links in the latter part of the millennium. Tobacco companies feel much less of an obligation to help eradicate disease than pharmaceutical companies do and for that reason few tobacco companies have invested, at the expense of their profit, in health schemes to aid the disease-stricken in LEDCs. They are much more interested in securing a long-term community of consumers demanding their product. British American Tobacco (BAT) in Africa is a prime example of this capitalist, profit-driven attitude in LEDCs. In Malawi, BAT advocated the sale of single cigarette sticks, which were very popular with children as they were so cheap; a single cigarette costs one fifth of the price of a single biscuit, which at least has some nutritional value. BAT used a single-stick campaign to try and encourage as many young people as possible to start smoking as they knew that once they had tried a few they would eventually become addicted to their product, which is wondrous news for their profit, as their body tells them that they need a cigarette and so they buy more of their product and for this reason, 80 000 to 100 000 children start smoking worldwide every day. Advertising to children in this way ensured that BAT maintained a constant group of consumers to replace the smokers that either, more likely, died from smoking-related diseases or stopped smoking. Smoking causes many types of cancer, such as lung, throat, kidney and liver cancers, and emphysema is also a common problem and every eight seconds someone dies from tobacco use. Although, like pharmaceutical companies, they provide employment for local people, they are often only few tobacco plant farmers and are paid very little and do not receive the healthcare that pharmaceutical companies provide. So, in LEDCs tobacco companies are having a very bad effect as they cause many life-threatening diseases and their advertising campaigns show little sign of wanting to help eradicate the problem. As well as having a presence in LEDCs, pharmaceutical and tobacco corporations have presence in MEDCs as well. Pharmaceutical corporations headquarters are often based in MEDCs, such as the headquarters of Bayer HealthCare in Germany and GlaxoSmithKline in the UK. They often do most of their research and development in MEDCs, as they have easier access to highly-developed facilities and laboratories to conduct experiments. Much like in LEDCs, pharmaceutical companies provide employment in MEDCs, but this is often much more skilled work in research and lab work and is highly paid unlike in LEDCs where are less strict wage restrictions. The majority of people in MEDCs have a high income in comparison with those in LEDCs and so can therefore afford the branded drugs that pharmaceutical companies produce and cleverly market. The sale of these branded drugs in MEDCs to consumers is where most profits of pharmaceutical companies are made. They are not inaccessible as they were in MEDCs and for that reason the health of the population in MEDCs is often much better and the generic drugs provided to health services in MEDCs are often quite cheap and are easily accessible reducing the level of disease in MEDCs. Even though branded drugs might make cheaper, generic copies of these drugs impossible, because of peoples higher disposable income, people can afford the branded drugs and are willing to pay extra money for the knowledge that is produced by a genuine pharmaceutical company and not a supermarket spin-off. Much like the social and moral responsibility pharmaceutical companies felt in LEDCs, they are also feel obligated to do something about the common diseases in MEDCs as well, despite the lower level of disease. A huge health problem in MEDCs are STIs and STDs among youths and costs healthcare services lots of money to treat these diseases. In the UK in 2008 there were 123,018 new diagnoses of chlamydia in clinics: a record number. Additionally from 1999 to 2008 there were 11 times the number of primary and secondary diagnoses of syphilis. The Bayer HealthCare pharmaceutical company started a family planning initiative in 1961 and now has had family-planning clinics in 130 countries for 50 years. They also created World Contraception Day, which is a day every year to accentuate the importance of contraception. On this day there are fund-raising events, radio talk shows, competitions and events in nightclubs and discos. Tobacco companies are also present in MEDCs as would be expected and have a large market. Currently around 20% of adults in the USA are smokers and there are large markets in many countries. Many of the same health effects as in LEDCs are found in smokers in MEDCs, such as cancer and emphysema, although treatment of these diseases may be better in MEDCs it still costs the health services many millions of pounds to treat these diseases, which could be classified as diseases of affluence as they are brought upon yourself. In the UK smoking costs. 13. 74 billion to the government overall! Cigarettes contain many carcinogens and these will obviously adversely harm health of smokers, but although advertising of cigarettes is banned in many MEDCs the already implemented addiction to cigarettes does not need advertising to continue. Fewer people start smoking in MEDCs than LEDCs as advertising is banned and fewer children start smoking as they are well aware of the health effects smoking has as many MEDCs make it compulsory to learn about the effects it has to reduce the cost to the government. Much like with pharmaceutical companies, tobacco companies provide employment in MEDCs, but it is mostly administrative work in offices as production occurs mainly in LEDCs where there are favourable growing conditions for the tobacco plant. Due to MEDCs laws, tobacco companies must provide some level of healthcare and so in that instance they help better the health of their employees, but again they do little to help with international health problems as they are more concerned with their profit. In conclusion, both tobacco and pharmaceutical companies have great influence on the health of people in countries at different stages of development, whether they be an MEDC or an LEDC. Producing drugs and medicines and health aid provided by pharmaceutical companies are probably the largest positive influences either of these types of companies have on the health of populations. Pharmaceutical companies are generally positively influencing the health of people in countries at different stages of development, but in different ways either by providing aid or employment or through the capitalist nature of the industry they are in. Whereas tobacco companies are trying to maintain a large consumer pool for their product, whilst adversely affecting peoples health due to the carcinogenic nature of tobacco and cigarette products and are therefore negatively influencing the health of people in almost exactly the same way in countries of all stages of development. As tobacco companies have less social and moral responsibility they are not motivated to help in the fight against widespread diseases, like the pharmaceutical companies are.

Developing Personal Goals for Career Development

Developing Personal Goals for Career Development Abstract Planning goals is one step towards the development of a career. To achieve a goal, one must plan on how to make this happen. You just dont wake up one day and decide that this is what I want to achieve without first of all considering the ways and means of achieving that and the possible hindrances on the way. It is important to break down your goals because it is through this that that you are setting reasonable goals as well as creating a long term plan. It is also important to make a plan to achieve the goals that you have set. A goal that has been set but does not have a plan remains just that. A goal. That is why people have visions, dreams, ideas and intentions but these never happen because they have not been planned. Goal planning helps when you want to advance your career and a good goal should not necessarily be time bound. One needs to select an area of specialization as a target to your goals. In this case I have chosen Nurse Consultant as my area of specialization. This is the role which I will focus during my masters degree in a nursing program. I have expounded on the areas that I am competent in, and the potential areas that are of interest to me. I have chosen to specialize in nurse consultancy because this is a new field that is not heavily crowded. Hence there is a greater chance of getting employment and if not, I can still employ myself by opening a nurse consultancy. Introduction There is a need for people to set their own goals in life. The first step is usually setting goals that are not too high but which all in all present a challenge. This means that goals must be reasonable, attainable and achievable. One must then develop a plan on how to achieve the set goals because goals with no plans are simply fantasies. Also the goals that one sets must have a challenge. This is because what you have already achieved does not pose a challenge at all. SMAART planning methods are a necessary guide to achieving goals. SMAART goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Action Oriented, Results oriented and Time-phased. This means that you should say what you want to achieve clearly and concisely, you should have a unit of measure for your goals hence they should be objective rather than subjective, should be realistic, should be written in an active rather than a passive voice, one should focus on end results and at least one should set a deadline to achieve the stat ed goals. My main goal in life is to be a fully qualified and successful nurse and work with the best institution in the country so as to help all the people regardless of their backgrounds. I plan to achieve this by completing my BSN and then after attaining a MSN. Career goal. My goal in life is to be a senior nurse in the best institutions in this country. I want to be a highly qualified nurse with an MSN.This I want to achieve by obtaining a masters degree from a nursing institution. I am aiming to attain this after completing my BSN which I will this year on June. After this I want to get a good highly paying job at the best institution in this country and it is after this that I will consider myself successful. I am a registered nurse with the National Health Service (NHS). I am currently working two jobs one as a Childrens nurse and the other one as a tutor in a small business college. Professional short term goal My professional short term goals is to better my career by attaining the BSN. When I achieve this, my career will have improved in terms of services that I will offer because I will have improved my scope of knowledge Professional long term goal. My professional long-term goal is to be the head nurse of a National hospital. This I can achieve after attaining my MSN. Personal short term goal My personal short term goal is to work just one job that is well paying because taking two jobs is becoming cumbersome on my part. Personal long term goal I want to earn more money and change my lifestyle want to have a good life and a nice car. I also want to buy a better house in a more posh and safer neighborhood also want to move away from my current home which I have rented and into a new home that I own. Needed skills The skills needed to achieve the goals I have set for myself include personal skills, social skills, and professional skills, educational and thinking skills Personal skills I need Self awareness in order to identify my own needs, attitudes, feelings, strengths and weaknesses in order to achieve my goals. I will also actively identify and utilize a wide range of all the available resources and seek other viewpoints and opinions. I will consider actively the implications of my studies on my daily activities and my job. That is why I have come up with a well developed but dynamic plan. I will consistently motivate myself and assure myself that I can make it no matter what. I will listen to other peoples opinion share with them and ask their support whenever I need it. I will work closely with my colleagues both in campus and at the job. I will make sure that I achieve my MSN so that my long term goals can be achieved. Management of time. I will need to routinely use time well and ensure that I have not wasted any time on unnecessary activities. When I enroll for my masters, I will drop one job so that may concentrate more on my studies. Milestones for achieving the goals. Short term goals After completing my BSN degree. when I start working one well paying job Long-term goals when I become the head nurse of a National hospital When I build my own house. When I move out of my neighborhood into a better high class neighborhood. Hindrances Fear-this is one of the barriers that may prevent me from achieving the goals. This may be fear of not fairing well in my BSN which may inurn inhibit me from enrolling for my MSN. I am also afraid that my application for masters may be declined. I plan to work hard to ensure that such an occurrence will not happen. Unsupportive people-I have many friends and relatives who do not have the level of education that I have. They usually discourage me a lot and tell me to stop harassing myself with books and that I have two jobs. I plan to keep them off and to those that I cannot; I will simply ignore and /or assume them. Conclusion Personal commitment and dedication will be required to achieve the above goals. I will have to work with other people closely to achieve my long term and short term goals. This is because no man is an island. I will avoid negative thinking completely and work on being optimistic and motivated. I must have a strong drive and belief that I will achieve these goals. Though I have not stated a particular deadline, I plan to attain these goals in stages and to finally achieve my long term goals within the next 5years.i will also trust in God and pray unto him to make my plans come into fulfillment. Recommendations A personal goal plan should be realistic and attainable. There is need for each and every person to write up a personal goal plan. This will help one know what he is aiming in life and also what one has achieved so far. Goals may change and therefore one need to critically think what he/she wants in life before listing down the goals. Even after there is a change in goals one should not see him/herself as a failure. In that case, one should write up new goals and aim to achieve them. Change of short term goals does not necessarily mean a change in the long-term goals.   References Chapman, A. (2007). Goal Planning Templates for Personal and Organizational Aims. Retrieved February 09 http://www.businessballs.com/goal_planning.htm Mind tools ltd (2010).Essential Skills For an Excellent Career. Retrieved 09 February http://www.mindtools.com/ Peterson, D. (2008). How To Write SMAART Goals and Objectives. Retrieved February 09 http://adulted.about.com/od/personaldevelopment/ht/smaartgoals.htm Johansen, K. (1996). The Business Focus of HRD Leaders. Paper presented at the 1996 Academy of Human Resource Development Conference held in Minneapolis in February, 1996. Legge, M. Career tools retrieved February 4, 2010 from http://www.coaching-life.co.uk/career/index.html Rouda, H. Kusy, M. (1995) Career Development.Tappi Journal.

The doha development

The doha development Doha development round The Doha development round is also called the Doha development agenda. It commenced in November 2002 as the trade negotiation round of (WTO) world trade organization. Its main objectives are to increase trade globally by lowering the trade barriers around the world. It began with the ministerial meeting in Qatar in 2001 then subsequent meetings took place in- Mexico (2003) Honkong (2005) Related meetings took place in Geneva, Switzerland (2004, 2006, 2008) Paris, France (2005) Potsdam, Germany (2007) The recent negotiation broke down on July 2008 which held as a failure to reach compromise on agricultural import rules. Negotiations Trade negotiation committee has overseen the talks of Doha negotiations, whose chairman is currently Pascal Lamys director general. The negotiations held in existing bodies of WTO and in five working groups. Topics of negotiations are market access, development and maintenance issues, to rules and regulations, trade expansions and other issues. Before Doha Before Doha negotiations there were WTO ministerial conferences. First WTO conference held in Singapore in 1996 for 4 major issues-government procurement, custom issues, investments in trade, competition and trade. These issues became known as Singapore issues. In spite of conferences no conclusion was reached, and then developed nations argued that other new trade negotiations mist include tat issues. In 1999 it was intended to start the millennium round but due to several different events it was never started. And it was decided by working groups that it will not be started until the first ministerial meeting in Doha, Qatar in 2001. Inbuilt agenda of 2000 on agriculture and trade in services merged with the Doha negotiations. Doha 2001 The Doha development agenda, DDA started in November 2001,to negotiate on agricultural issues, trade in services, also gats and trips negotiations. The main objective of this round was to make the trade regulations fairer for all the countries but according to various critics system of trade rules adopted in Doha round was bad for developing countries and against their domestic trade policies. Cancun, 2003 This meeting was collapsed after four days because of differences in Singapore issues; also few countries did not show flexibility in their operations, rather than trade negotiations they only replaced their demands and wide differences between the trade negotiations of developing and developed countries. Geneva, 2004 The main focus of this negotiation was on market access and reduction of agricultural export subsidies. Comprise was made on negotiation of Singapore issues, developing countries played a great role in the negotiation of trade facilitation. Paris, 2005 In was held on may of 2005 with the intentions to get the tangible progress before December of 2005.this conference was Hanging around issues like- cutting of subsides to farmers in France, issues relating to chicken, beef and rice and other technical issues. Geneva, 2006 This was held in June 2006 but it failed to reach on conclusion about import rules and taxes, reducing farming subsidies. Geneva, 2008 It was started on July 21, 2008 at the WTOS headquarters but failed to compromise on SSM, special safeguard issues. Differential treatment was provided to the developing countries in the form of import volume expansions. Negotiations on these issues continued in June 2009 since the last conference.50% were the odds of success said by Pascal Lamy. This negotiation expected to last for 4 days but instead of lasting 9 days it did not reach to conclusion. There were also disagreements onn various issues like protection to Indian and Chinese farmers and African imports to te European union. Why the Doha round matters Over a billion of people live under poverty. The IMF and World Bank estimated that 7% growth rate is needed to achieve the goal of halving the poverty by 2015.trade liberalization is an important part of development. Its main purpose is to provide the trade opportunities to countries and to provide more jobs and also to allow poor people to improve their lives. This can be achieved through more exports. More exports high economic growth-more stimuli to domestic reformsfaster poverty reduction. Trade liberalization is not only the answer no doubt investments in infrastructure, health issues or education is also requires. Therefore Doha round engaged in strengthening the institutions and improving the education and health services in developing countries. Deadlock of Doha As stated earlier DDA was started 2001 and expected to achieve the goals by 2005.after 7 turbulent years later after many ministerial meetings-after various mini-ministerial conferences -still we do not have an agreement. The collapsed of negotiations occur because of rejection by US on the demand made by china and India about the usage of safeguard measures is called deadlock of Doha The issues raised in Doha round by developing countries were the corner stone of necessary agriculture negotiations in the Doha agenda. The negotiating mandate include 2 key issues- Reducing trade distorting subsidies Food security and trade development Besides the tariff reduction issues, goals were met with much resistance regarding the minimization of distortions in agriculture market. Despite this compromise by the US developing countries still willing that US should also compromise on non-agriculture products tariff and non-tariff barriers. Important issues Agriculture It has become the most controversial issue of Doha round.2001 Doha round ended with an agreement to substantial improvements in the agriculture market-reductions of export subsides and reductions in the trade distorting support. Special products must be exempt from cuts Limit the number of import sensitive products Food security and livelihood considerations Access to patented medicines The main issue of Doha was trade related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS) The issue revolves around- Public health issues in developing countries Balance of interest between pharmacy companies Compulsory licenses for the export of pharmacy products to least developed and other member countries Special and differential treatment The one of the main issue as to strengthen and to make more precise, effective the special and deferential treatment (S D).developed and developing countries gave the separate deadlines for SD provisions. Also developing countries argued that developed countries were negotiating in good faith on the other hand they argued that developing countries were unreasonable in making the proposals. Implementation issues Developing countries had the limited capacity or inadequate technical assistance that is why they argued that they have had implementation problems with the agreements reached in the earlier of Uruguay round. They also claimed that apparel in country markets and large access for textiles did not benefit them what thy expected. Some of thee implementation issues resolved by WTO members and they directed two path approach for other remaining issues. Reasons for Doha failure Developing countries did not reciprocate on trade concessions For the collapse of negotiations, technically the US was blamed for this but US felt that developing nations had not open the markets in the way they were asked to open and so there were no point in negotiating the talks. Media attention lacking These meetings lacked media attention. You would hardly find any information about going of these meetings because this information did not mention in many mainstream media, even not on prime time televisions and on news broadcast. May be the media was catching the conflicts in Lebanon at and not the proceedings of WTO meeting. Some argue that democracies are expected to be accountable by an informed citizenry so it hardly matters whether media people cover this or not. Failure since Doha started in 2001 This collapsed of negotiation were not of sudden on it were from the beginning only. Developed nations demand developing nations for using unfair ways and poor countries in turn blaming rich countries for this failure. Negotiations and meetings aimed at a world that no longer exists It was argued that neither the collapsed and nor he recriminations were taken as too seriously. The Doha round continuously failed in spite of pace o growth in he world economy. Negotiations- Focused on issues that no longer exists Required efforts for taking actions against developing nations unwillingness to undertake One of the causes is that working groups focusing on same decisions to resolved the almost all issues. Therefore it was said that Success requires a different rules and players for different games. Impasses over the agriculture result in as much an excuse as a factor of breakdown. Is collapse of Doha a bad thing? Its collapse may be a good thing, if it is taken that the Doha development round focused on an issues misaligned with real world. The new WTO members brought during the Uruguay round have different perceptions about economic interests and trade offs with that of older members, board of the old GATT system. MFN clauses can one of the problems. Its main motive was to protect the smaller nation members like New Zealand and Luxemburg from larger nations like Japan and US. Despite of MFN, like the old trading systems new emerging systems for trade preferences also looks uncomfortable. Economic impact of Doha round In 2001 world income increased from $40 to $60 billion It means that less than 0.2% rise in global GDP. Liberalizing trade lead to global gains of $90 to $120 billion per year. Real lessons from Doha failure It was arguing that Doha development agenda was ill-conceived from the beginning only. Its main objective was to promote economic welfare through trade-offs.but this objective was more or less based on fantasies. Therefore objects be clearly defined after considering the various factors. Set realistic priorities American leaders must persuade bilaterally along with multilaterally, if they want to use trade rules and policies for strategic purposes. The trade initiatives should not be focusing on only third development nations but also on the global economy and world trading system. The Doha development agenda objectives reflected that developing nations are becoming most important international trade players and that is why they deserve a great voice while negotiating in the meetings. Leaving aside whether equality and rights effects economic regulations and policy making, global roles of developing nations has been over stated. Doha round should give more grant to developing nations a greater roles in negotiations. Ways to collude DDA OECD members will move forward They can move forward in number of areas- Services Manufacturing sectors Product standards recognitions Pricing of products And range of other issues On manufacturing tariffs there should be zero-for-zero plurilateral agreement. Worlds governments need to develop an multilateral trade system for the preservation of benefits from trade development and growth. Anti-democratic ways must be prune away contained in WTO rules for domestic policy making. Rules must be designed for a single homogenized market in spite of setting terms for separate nations with different priorities. The WTO members must be scaled back so that multilaterally treaties for public interest can serve as a floor of conduct of trade. Some other principles Participation Sustainable development High priorities should be given to subjects not negotiated Nothing can be agreed until everything is agreed Conclusion We can say that because of this negotiating process, the geopolitical map is becoming more complex There were increase in power disputes between national governments and negotiation procedures have become explicit with the role of international networks It is also clearly indicated that free trade policies most of the time favored the big corporations and developing nations do not want to follow these policies. However the IMFS and the WTO are in setback but they still influence on economic thinking. Now there is an undermining of global trade liberalization which act as an engine for development in earlier years. Rethinking the multilateral trade system means giving more priority to local methods of production and to the sustainability of life and planet. References www.wto.org www.google.com www.dfat.gov.com www.reuters.com www.businessstandard.com www.news.smh.com www.atimes.com www.forbes.com

Free Affirmative Action Essays - Black Americans Need Affirmative Action :: affirmative action argumentative persuasive

Black Americans Need Affirmative Action      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Affirmative action has been the subject of increasing debate and tension in American society. The debate has been more emotional than intellectual, and has generated more tension than shed light on the issue. Participants in the debate have over examined the ethical and moral issues that affirmative action raises while forgetting to examine the system that has created the need for them. Too often, affirmative action is looked upon as the remedy for a nation once ill with the virulent disease of racial discrimination. Affirmative action is, and should be seen as, a temporary, partial, and perhaps even flawed remedy for past and continuing discrimination against minorities in the American society.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Perhaps the biggest complaint that one hears about affirmative action policies aimed at helping Black Americans is that they violate the 14th Amendment of the Constitution and the Civil Rights laws. The claim is that these programs distort what is now a level playing field and bestow preferential treatment on undeserving minorities because of the color of their skin. While this view seems very logical on the surface, I contend that it lacks any historical support and is aimed more at preserving existing white privilege than establishing equality of opportunity for all. Just looking at the history of this country should provide a serious critique to the idea of a level playing field. Since the birth of this nation, Blacks have been an enslaved, oppressed, and exploited people. Until 1954, when the Supreme Court handed down Brown v. Board, Blacks were legally pushed to the margin of society where many were left to dwell in poverty and powerlessness. The Brown decision removed the legal impediments that had so long kept Blacks deprived of the educational necessities. It merely allowed Blacks to enter the arena of competition. Without the deconstruction of white power and privilege how can we legitimately claim that the playing field is level?      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  In fact not using affirmative action will only accomplish the continued exclusion of Black Americans from participation within American society and thus further ingrain stereotypes   Another reason that affirmative action confuses me, is because the discussion is always limited to race and gender based affirmative action policies. What about year after year the athletes that are admitted to all the colleges and universities

Golden Age Greek Criticism of Henry Moore’s Reclining Woman :: Essays Papers

Golden Age Greek Criticism of Henry Moore’s Reclining Woman Both the shape and body of the Reclining Woman sculpture totally tear down our standards as Golden Age Greeks. Not at all can I make out whom this sculptor is representing. Sure I can make out the basic female figure. However the head is way too small in proportion the rest of the body. Maybe Henry Moore has not yet finished this piece. Did he make a mistake in the development of the chest area? This could be the case. If still this is a finish piece of â€Å"art† in no terms by us Greeks' is this considered Art. What I would have done if I were to complete this hiatus mangled human form is to continue to define the legs and arms especially. Still keeping the reclining look even though this promotes the idea of laziness in our eyes. After all, Greek art has to be the ideal of all, the perfect balance of mind and body -- picked up from Plato and his teachings. This shows neither. A great example is the discus thrower how the figure shows no physical stress or emotion through the face even though he is performing a strenuous activity. With this in mind further defining of the face, needed so the figure is anatomically correct and shows no stress through facial expression. This breaks all of our tradition in sculpture. On the one hand the simplification and distortion of body and limb seem extremely daring departures from the tradition which few do; on the other hand, this is reminiscent of the earliest sculpture ever produced, which is far from a perfect balance. Thus he has created a new form; that of pure laziness. Moore must think with the third dimension every bit as much as he must think in terms of the other two. Human ideals should come naturally -- correct proportions with the Platonic idea of mind and body balanced. Tying all of these sculptural ideas together would be a great help for Henry Moore, who seems challenged by every bit of these. Other points to be noted in the execution of the sculptor's idea than those of relating the proportions, preserving the perfect body, and suggesting depths. A cardinal requirement, and one which is made much of in any discussion of Greek sculpture, is truth.

Importance of Critical Thinking

It was Francis Bacon who said â€Å"knowledge is power† and indeed it is. We all want to know, to gain knowledge. That’s why we go to school for a large portion of our lives, why we read, watch and listen to all we can when we are awake and sometimes even when we are asleep. But what exactly is knowledge? While there isn’t a single standard definition, the oldest accepted definition was given by famous philosopher Plato; â€Å"Justified true belief. † The pursuit of knowledge I define as research. So how does one reach the goal of attaining this justified true belief?I suggest the use of critical thinking skills as a means to that end. Linda Elder defines critical thinking as follows; â€Å"Critical thinking is self-guided, self-disciplined thinking which attempts to reason at the highest level of quality in a fair-minded way. † That is, a method of thinking developed by a person that would allow this person to reason at the apex of his/her intellig ence, objectively. Critical thinking is an important apparatus in seeking knowledge as it addresses issues like uniformity, bias and partiality.As human beings we are naturally selfish. The phrase â€Å"looking out for number one† comes to mind. The point is that we want for ourselves. Similarly in seeking knowledge on a particular subject matter, we tend to take into consideration only the evidence that suits our opinion, which supports our stance on the issue. Critical thinking requires that we move past our biases and examine every bit of evidence with sound logic, in order to after an objective analysis, arrive at a fair conclusion. Also, when we do research, our findings are often partial or incomplete.With the application of critical thinking skills we would overcome that obstacle as thinking critically requires us to bring together and evaluate all the necessary information. So we would not only assess the pros as it relates to something, but also the cons. Nor would w e analyze one party’s view and ignore the opposition. Everything relevant would be appraised, making our pursuit complete. Lastly, the idea of uniformity. Format and order are very important in conducting research. We must be able to see a continuum or sequence in our methodology.Critical thinking is a process, therefore there are stages involved such as evaluation and inference. Our thoughts would not be jumbled nor would our ideas seem scattered and random as might be the case when we don’t dig deeper beneath the surface of a concept and reason on a higher plain. The application of critical thinking skills would undoubtedly result in coherence. To conclude, the importance of critical thinking as a tool in the pursuit of knowledge cannot be denied as our usual mode of reasoning is damaged and it is just the tool for the fix. â€Å"Those who know how to think need no teachers. †- Mahatma Gandhi.

Minh Hieu Mobile

Group Assignment 2 Analysis the Information system support for Sale process of Minh Hieu Mobile company. March – 2013 Table of Contents I. Executive summary3 II. Background of the organization4 III. Description of the business process4 IV. Description of the existing IT/IS to support the process6 V. Analysis of strengths and weakness of the process6 VI. Recommendation6 VII. Implementation Plan8 VIII. Conclusion:9 IX. List of reference:9 I. Executive summaryPurpose of assignment: Analyze the business process of a company, examine the IS use and issues of this company and develop a plan recommending more effective use of information and communication technologies. Selected company: Minh Hieu Mobile company The analyzed business process : Sale process What we have done: Collect the information about the company; discuss with Sale manager of the company to understand the organization and management system of the company essay writer magic; apply the knowledge of information system management to analyze the business and recommendation for improvement of the information system of the company.Group members: * Nguyen Thanh Ngoc * Tran Hong Nhung * Do Van Linh * Mai Hoang Oanh * Tong Thi Ngoc Quynh * Bui Khanh Son * Nguyen Thi Bich Hang II. Background of the organization Name of the company: Minh Hieu mobile Ltd. (Minh Hieu Mobile) Minh Hieu Mobile Limited is a small mobile trading company established in 2010 and located in Ha Noi city. At present, the company has more than 20 employees and has 3 mobile showrooms in Dong Da district, Hai Ba Trung district and Thanh Xuan district of Hanoi. The scope of services for Minh Hieu Mobile includes: Selling mobile and accessories, mobile repair services.Due to the small of scale, the management and the organization of the company is very simple with two departments is Sale – Purchase and Accounting. The Sale department is responsible for managing 3 showrooms. Figure 1: Organization structure of Minh Hieu Mobile com pany Director Sale – Purchase Accounting Showroom 1 Showroom 2 Showroom 3 III. Description of the business process According to the information provided by Sale managers, we understand the Sale process of the company as below: Showrooms are equipped computer and internet to support for business, each showroom is operating almost independently.There is some limitation of communication and exchange of information between showrooms of Minh Hieu mobile. Normally, at the end of the day, the head of showroom makes a sale report and sends to Sale Manager and Accounting department via email. After that, based on the report, Sale and Accounting update into the Accounting system and Warehouse for monitoring the inventory and finance. The Figure 2 illustrates the process for purchasing a mobile from a Minh Hieu’s store If a customer request to buy a mobile, the sale staff firstly checks if the mobile is in the how-case. In case the mobile is not in the show-case, the sale staff w ill check to warehouse of the showroom. If the product is available, the sale staff will deliver the mobile to the customer, then bill and print the invoice. The mobile will be received by the customer and he/she will bring it to technical staff for setup then it is all set. If the mobile is not available on the shelves, the sale staff will check the warehouse. If the warehouse has this mobile, the sale staff will give a delivery order to the warehouse to get the mobile and deliver to customer.If the mobile is out of stock, the sale staff will ask if the customer wants to order this item. If customer agrees, the sale staff prepares the order, sets up an appointment to customer and requests the Sale department to import the mobile. Take request Search shelves Avaiable? Delivery and billing by the clerk Deliver to the cashier on the end-day Propose warehouse Get from warehouse Search in wearhose Able to order? Go to another store Notify customer Return to store Place order Customer Cl erk Customer Purchase and setup the phoneTake phone home Figure 2 The process for purchasing a mobile from a Minh Hieu’s store From this figure, we can see this process has many steps with manual activities and the customer have to spend more time for manual process. IV. Description of the existing IT/IS to support the process To support for the business process, the current IT/IS includes: At the company level: * A system of computers network, which is operating under the clients/server model. * A accounting software (Fast Accounting) for accounting department. At the showroom level:Each showroom has 3 computers which can access internet. One computer is installed Fast accounting software for recording Sale and accounting transaction of the showroom but this computer is operating stand – alone not link to the server in the head office. V. Analysis of strengths and weakness of the process Weakness: In side each showroom: * Most of the sale process is done manually and the sale man cannot know the quantity in stock until they check the warehouse because they have no warehouse control system to provide real time information. The customer is not supported and severed properly. * Sale information is not updated real-time to head office. Between showrooms –showroom – head office * The information exchange capacity is very weak, the stock information, sale information is not update in time. * Each showroom is operating separately and rarely supports other showrooms. VI. Recommendation 5. 1 Objective: A comprehensive software and system for Sale – Warehouse management which can: * One system operates on clients/server model allowing computers of 3 showroom to access and work. One system integrates functions for Sale – Warehouse – Accounting. * Support and automatic sale process (invoicing, billing , †¦) * The sale staff can get information of the available product real-time to serve customer. * Can access and mana ge the system anywhere through internet. * Easy to use * High security. * Reasonable investment cost. Basing on the above the expected features of the new system, we redesign the purchasing process a mobile as below: Take request Search on system Avaiable Delivery, billing and change the phone’s status on systemSearch on other store Get from other store Purchase and setup the phone Take phone home Customer Clerk Customer Go to other store Figure 3 : Redesigned purchasing process a mobile from Minh Hieu’s store. 5. 2 Figure 4 : New system Brief description of the new IT-IS system: The new system operates as the client/server model in which, the server is located in the head office and stores the database. The clients are the computers at 3 showrooms and head office. These computers will be installed the software to access to sever and work at the same time.Moreover, the system also runs the Web function that allow access system from Web to get the information at anywher e internet available. Main function: * Ware house management Module * Module Purchasing management * Module Sale management * Module Payable and receivable management * Module Store and branch management. * Module Customer relationship The estimated cost for investment the new system is about 8000 USD VII. Implementation Plan Step| Detail work| Who| Time | Expected result| Analysis and select the IT provider. The company assigns a team to research and selects the best appropriate IT company. | The team includes Sale manager, Accounting manager, Director. | 1 week| A good IT company is selected and contracted. | System analysis| The consultant analyzes the current system to identify the problem| IT consultant and the team. | 1 week| All problems of current system are identified and discussed in a report | System design| The IT consultant will design a new system to solve the problem| IT consultant and the team| 2 weeks| Proposal for new system. Programming and testing| After proposal is accepted, the IT company will program and write the software, then test the features of the software| IT consultant| 1 months| The software and system meet the requirement and pass the test| Conversion and training | Convert data from current system to new system, training for staffs| IT consultant and the team| 1 week| Data is successful converted to new system, all staffs can use the new system | Inspection and handover| Final check and finish the contract| It consultant and team| 1 days| | Production and Maintenance| Maintain the system, back up data.. support| The team, It consultant, staffs| | The system operates smoothly and meets the requirement. | VIII. Conclusion: Improving competitiveness is very important requirement of the enterprise. With appropriate investment for information technology and effective using of technology systems will help to significantly improve the competitiveness of enterprises.It is widely known that the information technology helps to improve e fficiency, quality of work, reduce costs and better customer service. With the investment in the new system, Minh Hieu expects to increase 30% of sales in 2013. In addition to the above benefits, Minh Hieu expects to improve the standard workflow when applying this new information technology system. IX. List of reference: * http://www. minhhieumobile. com. vn/ * Mr. Toan – Sale Manager . Tel : 043. 5637237 .