Safety with Armed Guards Patrolling School

Safety with Armed Guards Patrolling School Introduction: There is lots of schools that do not have as much security to protect students and teachers from violence.Having guards on school campus do help but what if the school was on a lockdown because of a shooting on campus. What is the guard going to do? Go up to him like nothing? No. What we need are armed guards. Armed guards will be able to stop the shooting and save peoples lives. Prevention and mitigation. Graves has used U.S. Justice Department grants for classroom door locks that can be secured from inside, plus video cameras and electronic locks for outer entrances. There are a lot of wonderful fire prevention approaches, Graves notes. Wouldnt it be great if we could have the same consideration given to other kinds of threats? Preparedness. Because 95 percent of emergency situations requiring lockdowns happen outside of school buildings, Lincoln County schools have two kinds of lockdown. A partial lockdown occurs when you bring everybody inside and instruction continues. Does your school have a plan for getting students back indoors quickly? Graves asks. We call it reverse evacuation. And you have to announce it because there are almost always some kids outside. A complete lockdown is what happened in Newtown, with school employees working quickly to make sure children were tucked out of sight. Response. During spring break, Lincoln County schools invite police officers onto each school campus for active shooter training, during which they learn the layouts of buildings and practice stopping an assault. Its a useful exercise that, luckily for Lincoln County, has never been tested. Recovery. During this period, the entire school community steps in to provide support. Graves experienced this phase firsthand when she was invited to Newtown after the tragedy there. She visited memorials, hugged people, cried with them and listened as one local man told her that even the shooter was one of ours and we failed him. Schools are still by far the safest places in America. But the events in Newtown have swayed public opinion in ways that earlier shootings did not, and the AFT stands with President Obama, who said in his second inaugural address that our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for, and cherished, and always safe from harm. Knowing that our schools will never be safe as long as it remains easy for criminals or the mentally ill to acquire guns. AFT president Randi Weingarten, at the White House in January, commended President Obama and Vice President Biden for their proposals to reduce gun violence and promote safety, including: Banning sales of large ammunition clips; Expanding background checks and cracking down on those who lie on background check Stopping illegal gun trafficking; Banning assault weapons; Enforcing gun laws and investing in research on stopping gun violence; and Investing in mental health services. The first solution, fortifying schools, is unlikely to be effective not simply because it is costly; a determined shooter could surveil and disarm the guards or defeat the metal detectors or other devices. Limiting media coverage might be more effective. At the moment, media coverage of these tragedies is so relentless and invasive that it effectively glorifies the shooter. If the media refused to provide such coverage, or if it were prohibited from doing so, a potential shooter might be discouraged from committing mass murder/suicide because he would realize that he will not get the postmortem fame he craves. The difficulty would be in crafting a law that accomplishes this aim while not unduly infringing on the freedom of the press. The third possibility, repealing the gun-free zone laws, shows the most promise in deterring these horrible crimes, because potential shooters would not know who else might be carrying a gun. The most common objections to allowing licensed adults to carry firearms in schools is the fear that unless such a person is as highly trained as a policeman, he is likely to shoot indiscriminately at the shooter or over childrens heads, and cause even more terror than the original shooter has provoked. Body Paragraph 3: This objection shows both a lack of an ability to prioritize and a lack of understanding of how widespread responsible gun ownership is in the United States. While state laws differ about what constitutes adequate training, the vast majority of those who are licensed to carry do so responsibly. In considering the possibility of allowing concealed carry on our law school campus, one of my colleagues stated that she would never trust her safety to Professor X, an older professor widely known for his staunch support of the Second Amendment and other conservative causes. But if (God forbid) a disgruntled former law student entered the faculty suite hoping to shoot as many faculty members as possible, I would much rather trust to the ability of Professor X (or any other professor or student or even my own skill) to shoot him and not me than on my ability to run, hide in my locked office, or try to tackle the shooter. ost mass shooters are young men or occasionally womenusually teenswho are emotionally unstable and want to exact revenge on society for some harm that they have suffered commit suicide in a blaze of gunfire, and get national media attention for their last act. Their desire to commit suicide indicates that though such shooters may be deranged, they are cognizant of the likely consequences of their acts and are acting accordingly by choosing suicide. Three possible ways of doing this are to: fortify schools with Armed guards and metal detectors as in airports, limit media coverage of mass shootings so that potential shooters recognize that they wont become famous postmortem, or eliminate the gun-free zones and allow licensed parents, teachers, administrators, and adult students to carry their guns into school. Body Paragraph 4: Senetence 1: The first solution, fortifying schools, is unlikely to be effective not simply because it is costly a determined shooter could surveil and disarm the guards or defeat the metal detectors or other devices. Limiting media coverage might be more effective. At the moment, media coverage of these tragedies is so relentless and invasive that it effectively glorifies the shooter. If the media refused to provide such coverage, or if it were prohibited from doing so, a potential shooter might be discouraged from committing mass murder/suicide because he would realize that he will not get the post mortem fame he craves. The difficulty would be in crafting a law that accomplishes this aim while not unduly infringing on the freedom of the press. The third possibility, repealing the gun-free zone laws, shows the most promise in deterring these horrible crimes, because potential shooters would not know who else might be carrying a gun. Conclusion: It cannot be overemphasized that concealed carry has reduced violent crime every time it has been passed and is therefore most likely to reduce the incidence of mass shootings in schools. This could help save Students and teachers lives. Source Citation  (MLA 8th Edition) Nedzel, Nadia E. Concealed carry: the only way to discourage mass school shootings. Academic Questions, vol. 27, no. 4, 2014, p. 429+. Educators Reference Complete, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=PROFsw=wu=j020902v=2.1id=GALE%7CA393875930it=rasid=60ebd55450302f2b54a3e4146bed4a53. Accessed 17 Feb. 2017.

Unilever International Strategy Analysis

Unilever International Strategy Analysis 1. Introduction 2.2 The main factors influencing the market strategies 2.2.1 The influence from macro environmental factors on strategy selection Environmental factors have influences on strategy selection (Johnson and Scholes, 2002). Such factors refer to the aspects of politics, economy, society and technology. PEST analysis can be used to discover the possible tendency in external environment which may finally determine the strategy a company adopts. A multi-national company may pay special attention to the relationships between governments and the future policies a government may adopt due to the influences of political factors. The MNC may also care about the changes of labor cost and exchange rate influenced by economic factors (Johnson and Scholes, 2002). With PEST analysis a connection is established between the general environment and strategy selection. Therefore, the weak and implicit signals hidden in the general environment become critical factors explaining the changes of strategies (Henry, 2008). 2.2.2 The influence from micro environment factors on strategy selection The macro environment affects all firms while micro environment affects the films only in particular industries. This comprises very loosely the internalities of the organization: that is, the forces over which the organization has some control, or perhaps influence is a better way of describing the level of power the organization possesses (Jon, Peter, Patrick 2004). Micro environment factors include consumers, employees, suppliers, shareholders, media and competitors. One classic model that looks at the structure of an industry is Michael Porters Five Forces model (Malcolm and Dennis 2002). The challenge facing the firm is how to reach market and serve it efficiently and a socially responsible scale (Vincent 2008). 2.2.3 The ways of core competence affecting strategy selection Starting inside an enterprise, core competency or resource-based views mainly concentrate on evaluating what special abilities an enterprise has in adapting to the business environment and acquiring the best market opportunities to exploit (Brain, 2003). Carpenter (2007) proposes that as the center of a company operating its business, core competence concerns the abilities that can be commonly applied by enterprises in their principal businesses and helps them create innovative products and services. Core competence can become the basis of establishing new strategies, and help a company to break down the old rules and create opportunities in new areas (Joyce and Woods, 2001). 2.2.4 International strategy The enormous variety of operations embraces by the term multinational has led some writers to distinguish between for key strategies when competing in the international business environment: a global strategy, a transnational strategy, a multidomestic strategy and an international strategy (Wall and Rees, 2004). A major limitation is its lack of localized strategy. It can be contrasted with the multinational model. Often called a multidomestic model, it is a decentralized federation (Bartlett and Ghoshal, 1998:56). National subsidiaries are managed as independent units, able to adapt strategy to local conditions. Co-ordination from the centre is limited, and based on personal relationships between managers from the centre and those in subsidiary units, rather than on formal management systems (Morrison, 2009). 3. Macro and Micro Environment for Unilever According to Stonehouse and al (2004: 142) the macro environment is the part of the environment over which the business can rarely exert any direct influence but to which it must respond. To analyse Unilevers external environment critically, the basic method is PESTEL, which focuses on the change in terms of politics, economy, society, technology, environment and laws. The main factors that influence Unilevers macro environment are economy and society. For economic factor, new emerging market is developing rapidly, such as India which stands for $300 million every year. According to the economic situation, the whole world is undergoing a revolution in the history. The economic power has transferred from developed countries to China and other emerging market. With market reform, the speed of development in new emerging economies is much faster than that of developed countries. And this discrepancy is more easily to be found. Because of such specific market, political aspect also should be taken into account. In some countries where increasing GDP and rate of employment is everything, like South Africa, negotiation and special treatment from government will become good advantages for companies. Obviously, Unilever has done well in capitalizing this advantages into growth. In India, besides retail market in cities, Unilever also shows great interest in rural market, which is often ignored by other enterprises. The company has invested much in rural population who are the biggest potential consumers in the future though rank lowest now in global economy. Unilever has given fully play to opportune time, advantageous terrain an popular support of its subsidiary Hindustan lever ltd, exploiting rural retail market in-depth and finally gained a national vision in India. Whats more, the economic factor in macro environment not only refers to the domestic economy. Global economy situation also influenced its development a lot. The economic crisis in 2008 has affected almost every nation, every industry in the world. So does Unilever. Take Chinese market for an example, in recent 30 years, particularly in recent ten years, the GDP has grew with an increase never under 10%, but in 2008 after September, the number dropped to 9.5%, lower than that of the second quarter. For political factor, similarly, lets hold Chinese market as the example. When Unilever enter Chinese market at first, it can only establish joint venture on the ground of the restricted policies at that time. The company set up Shanghai Lever Ltd with local enterprises in 1986. However, both party had divergence on development strategies and the joint venture structure leaded to decreased management efficiency. In 1999, Unilever gave up joining investment with local enterprises and turn to co-operate with its headquarter, building up Unilever Ltd, China. This change has greatly enforced the companys control over business in China. Besides economy and politics, social factor also affect Unilever. Since the late 1990s, Unilever has confronted a awkward situation in China. As Unilever pursue the multi brand strategy, only 14% Chinese knew what Unilever is at that time. But its competitor, Nestle and PG has already gained well public awareness. Thus the company started marketing with social responsibility. Unilever Hope Star project is then designed to help 200 impoverished students for their university with financial assistance. The then president of Unilever also flied to Chongqing to meet with the first 25 students. In addition, it invested hundreds of Hope School in many parts of China. All these efficient public-service activities has increased Unilevers reputation and fostered a positive corporate image. Micro environment includes suppliers, distributors, customers, competitors and publics. As to Unilever, among them the most important one is distributors and competitors weigh much as well. Traditionally, Unilever is a multidivisional organization. Its subsidiaries in every nation take in charge of all the products in local market. But after middle 1990s, this form was longer accustomed to the dynamic marketing environment. In 1996, Unilever decided to let many divisional departments of business group focus on certain specific products. For instance, in European business group, some departments stressed on detergent business, while some focus on ice-cream or frozen food. For the competitors, PG, undoubtedly, is Unilevers closest one. There are fierce rivalries between two companies in many fields like hair product. PG has introduced Head-shoulders, REJOICE and PANTENE successively, known as professional anti-scurf, smooth hair and conditioning hair shampoos. Thus, Unilever has launched a new brand CLREAR in order to cover its shortage in anti-handcuff market. This has been not a small impact on PG. 3. Industry globalisation / localisation drivers and Key factors for success 3.1 The globalization / localization of Unilever With the development of interweaved economy, Unilever began to modify its management strategies since 1990s, concentrating on its advantageous products and brands. At the same time, Unilever pays great attention to combining globalisation with localisation. It will develop its new products ingredients, formulas and even advertisement and package according to the diversified habit and expectations of consumers in different regions. For example, if the home office decides to launch a new brand of ice-cream, a united formula, ingredient list, manufacturing technology, package and advertisement will be offered globally. But it also changes the basic product slightly, like adding or reducing ingredients, so that the ice-cream can satisfy the different tastes of consumers. The producer may add more cocoa in southern Asia while reduce sweetness in China. And in different area, the local language will appear on the package, the local star will show on advertisement. However, the manufacturing technology, logo and quality standard is single. Local sales office or research institutions have no right to control or change. They can put forward suggestions but cannot make decisions. If the company wants to introduce cosmetics, a unique local condition is unavoidable to consider. Which type of skin do they belong? Are their skins sensitive? What is the color of their color? Producers should change the formula or ingredients based on these questions. Otherwise the product will find no market and damage the producers reputations. 3.2 The key point for the success of Unilever The key point for the success of Unilever mainly consists of two part: 1, promoting brand value; 2, establishing Competency Model 3.2.1 Not to create but to buy it As analysed, in order to create a new brand, only media investment can reach at least $200 billion. If a company is going to enter a total new market or a foreign market, the cost of expanding brand publicity will be much more expensive, let alone the existed threats from other powers in the original market. In this case, many enterprises will choose to promote brand value through use of capital. Unilever is one of the representatives. Unilever owns more 400 brands around the world but most of them is first purchased from other nations and then popularized to the whole world. Ponds originated from US but were purchased by Unilever, who has developed it as a very famous skin product in the world. Another brand is Zhonghua, which is traditional toothpaste of China. Unilever included it as one of its branches and now Zhonghua has become the top one in Chinese market again. But potential crisis also exist behind success. Since 1996, Unilever has suffered great decline in turnover, while PG still maintains a stable increase on the contrary. In 2004, both Unilever and PG gained a income of nearly $52 billion. The later ones yearly profit reached as much as $6.4 billion, but Unilever only had $2.42 billion. An indispensable reason is just the purchasing strategy although it has pushed Unilever to success. 3.2.2 Set up Competency Model In Unilever, the values of company will tell employees what to do and how to do it. If the employee agrees with the values, he is naturally tended to behave by following it, or to restrict himself with the guidance of the values. If he does not agree, he needs to change himself by acquired learning. And here, a comparatively clear standard or instructions is necessary. Thus, Unilever established the Competency Model, which aids employees to know themselves correctly, to march on improving themselves. If employees quality is increased, so does the working efficiency and achievement. This has brought more profit to Unilever in turn. 4. International Strategy for Unilever and the comparisons between Unilever and PG 4.1 International Strategy for Unilever Unilever was once a typical MNC, but now it has transferred to operate with multinational strategies. In the 1980s, just in Europe, Unilever had altogether 17 major brands of washing products all over the worlds, which is not only a waste of asset, but also causes market overlapping. Moreover, since subsidiaries of Unilever are widely distributed all over the world, it often takes as many as four years for them to promote a new product. Unilever is now trying to integrate its European operations into a single entity, and to the manufacture of detergents emphasizing cost-effectiveness of several plants. Unilever uses standardized packaging and advertising approaches all over Europe. According to the estimation of the company, an annual cost can be saved more than $200 million. But at the same time, because of distribution channels and brand awareness of the country-specific differences, Unilever company recognizes that it still maintains regional adaptation, and even tries to possess the best location in production and marketing to achieve its economic objective. 4.2 To evaluate Unilevers international strategies by comparing it with PG in Chinese market. 4.2.1The brand competition between Unilever and PG What are the reasons that lead to Unilever, the owner of many Chinese native brands, inferior to PG, who only has its own brands, in Chinese market? The strategic reason is acceptable, but more important is reflection on Unilevers marketing mix. In this section, the author will analyse Unilevers strategies by comparing CLEAR and Head Shoulders. Brand strategy In terminal promotion, all related hair products has involved in it. It seems that PG takes more finesse in this competition, no matter for the influence of single brand or the brand fitness. Market basis CLEAR can date back to 1973. The product has been sold in many places such as Europe, Southeast Asia and gained more 100 billion consumers in the world. However, 80% market share is occupied by Head Shoulders in anti-handcuff market. Product mix For the first time CLEAR segments the anti-handcuff market further. It aims at the blind point in market and introduces a new hair product specially for men. Terminal construction CLEAR is a new brand in Chinese market. Though it has a background of Unilever, the public awareness has not been established yet. Contrarily, Head Shoulders has been the leader in this field with many years of cultivation. On the other hand, as Unilever lacks in terminal resources and market basis, CLEARs coverage rate in all kinds of retail terminal is still far behind Head Shoulders. For the reasons, we may find that CLEAR depends two much on marketing segments and advertisement, but ignores the efficiency and performance problem in sales practice. Unilevers awkward position in China mainly results from: Mistaken idea of co-operation In early years, Unilever operates the management strategy as: to co-operate with some native enterprises by using their distribution network and salesmen. This strategy is ok, but Unilever hasnt done well in coordination and management. Among the 12 joint ventures, each of them has its own production line, distribution system and salesmen. Many parts overlap together, thus increase the total cost. Product management defect Chinese market is very broad and complicated. Consumers needs varied from place to place because of the different customs and habits. In order to meet this trend, the producer has to invent some products with some unique features and right market position. But certainly Unilever is inadequate in this part. Compared Unilevers product list with that of PG, we can see that, for the hair product alone, every brand has fulfilled different consumers requirements. These products possess clear market position that attracts large number of consumers. Relatively, Unilever hasnt done enough in this point. 4.3 Unilevers advantageous strategies Yet, the failure in one part doesnt mean the total failure. Unilever also has some distinctive strategies that stimulate the company to advance. 4.3.1 Global brands is important as well as local brands Among Unilevers 400 global brands, most of them is purchased from original countries first and then popularized to the whole world. Unilevers success greatly depends on its deep root in local market and the first-hand data of regional culture. The company will change dynamically to adapt to the local conditions. Global and native brands develop together so that the company will gain maximum benefit. 4.3.2 Marketing channel of distribution strategy Unilevers marketing channel covers almost parts of countries, and its management and insensitive level is high. In this way, the home office can transfer its purpose clearly from level to level. 4.3.3 Market promotion Unilevers advertising designs embody each products characteristics and form an interactive effect. Conveying promotional messages through advertisement has presented the companys positive image. This made Unilever as one of the most successful supplier of everyday use. 5. Core Competences of Unilever Core Competency is a special ability of a company that competitors find extremely difficult or impossible to equal (Wild, Wild, and Han, 2010). As an important component of the companys core competitiveness, brand is closely related to such categories of competitiveness as enterprises culture, core technology, and human resources, etc. Market competition comes from the previous product quality, price, variety and service. Unilever takes the brand strategy as its core competitiveness. Unilever has a rich, mature, multi-brand management experience for a global perspective, it focuses on brand strategy, decreases the number of brands from 2000 to 400, so as to ensure the first-line brand growth. As for localization, Unilever has meanwhile sought in the development of global brands, as well as protection and development of domestic brands. Large international brands integrated into the development process of Unilever have always been of a high priority. 75% of Unilevers sales volume comes from 400 brands in these 2000 ones. 4.6% growth over last year. These brands have a high profit. If they focus on the development of these 400 brands, their business is bound to generate a greater benefit. Compressing the size of Unilever brand is based on the 80/20 rule, that is, the golden rule under which 80% of the companys sales is created from 20% of the merchandises, i.e. 400 brands selected from 2000 ones (Christopher, 2003). 6. Effectiveness of Unilevers strategy and operation Unilever has been the leader in everyday use market. This is undoubtedly successful. Being a multinational company, Unilever has fostered a positive image in new emerging market. Through purchasing native brands, Unilever has enlarged the popularity of its products and the market share. But compared to PG, Unilever leaves much to be desired in recent years. In 2004, the income of Unilever dropped 6% than last year, and the profit dropped as much as 9%. In September of the same year, Unilever issued a profit warning without precedent, saying that the company may not reach the promised profit growth. Companys multinational strategy sounds very attractive as it hold cost and differentiation advantages at the same time. But operating this strategy is quite difficult. The press from local adjusting collides with lower cost to Unilever. Competing with other low-cost enterprises forces Unilever to improve cost reduction. Meanwhile, the different government regulations in the world require Unilever keep changing in response to the local needs. When entering a new market, Unilever prefers to seeking recourses from local environment, which reduce the cost a lot. While for the local adjusting, Unilever tries to close the gap by purchasing native brands. Moreover, localisation is the key strategy, including human resource localisation, capital running localisation, procurement localisation etc. But in the authors opinion, the most significant aspect of localisation is decision-making localisation. The Unilever system is slow in reacting and leads to an inefficient decision-making. This is the key problem that influences Unilevers performance. 7. Conclusion Unilever has developed as one of the leaders in the worlds consumer product brands. The company has carried out many strategies according to factors that influence business strategies. The factors refer to both macro and micro environment. For a multinational company, glolisation and localisation play a vital role in opening new market. Unilever is good at popularizing products by purchasing them from original countries. It is skilled in adjust its strategies to different local conditions. The paper has analysed the international strategies of Unilever and put forward critical advices for its further development. For example, to focus on combination of globalisation and localisation, to insist on its successful brand strategy, etc. It is argued to say that a strategy is absolutely good or not. A suitable strategy is more important. Any company must choose the strategies that best fit its pratical situation. Unilevers adjustment strategies based on local market information can best explain this. 8. Further Recommendations The development for a company cannot be smooth all the time. Even a multinational company like Unilever may face every kind of problems through the process. For example, as we have mentioned above, mistaken idea of co-operation, product operating defect, etc which lead Unilever to a awkward position in the competition. With these painful lessons, the author suggested that Unilever should sum up experiences and change its management strategies, like insisting on successful brand strategy, brands creativity strategy as well as focusing on combination of globalisation and localisation. Whats more, it should persist in training qualified employees and carrying out well-rounded localisation strategy. High qualified employees will bring unexpected profit to Unilever. And only having a thorough knowledge of market and consumers can Unilever remain unconquerable. Besides, Unilever also must know well the dynamic environment change and response it with adjustment measures. These measures should be suitable for the environmental requirements.

Documenting The Depression Essay -- essays research papers

Documenting the Depression: The FSA photographers and Rural Poverty   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Great Depression fell hard in the year of 1935 bringing what seemed to some people the end of the world. But in truth, the Great Depression was nothing near the end of the world, in fact the year of 1935 was not the first year nor was it the last year that many families had suffered and went hungry due to lack of work. Families forced to leave their home. Children going in hunger while their bellies pierced with pain. Mothers trying desperately to keep the family together while holding the brunt of the problems due to the depression. The husbands feeling the guilt for not having a job and thinking that it is his fault. Children scream with lack of food and sheer boredom as the families pack their bags and head towards California in hopes to find work and the start of a new life. This is a painted picture of what one might have saw during the Great Depression. However, we need not imagine what it might have been like. What pictures might have looked like because we already know.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Photography was a technological advance during the nineteenth century and although not many people had cameras, the ones that did, did not miss the opportunity to capture the cruel times of that period. In John Vachon’s picture taken in 1940, he shows an abandoned farmhouse in Ward County, North Dakota. Vachon also takes a picture of the living quarters of a fruit packing home for the workers in Berrien, Michigan in 1940. The small confinements of the house could barely suit one person let alone a whole family. Dorothea Lang, another photographer of that time shots photos of a migrant mother in Nipomo, California in 1936. Her face stern and wrinkled. A look of sadness and concern appears on her tired face while her two children cling on to her shoulder. She also took a picture of a Mexican migrant workers home in Imperial Valley, California in 1937. His home is merely anymore than a small bedroom. A shack made out of cardboard and what appears to be aluminu m. Once again, hardly set for one person let alone a family. These conditions were not anything unusual. Unfortunately, those were the times during the Great Depression and the photographers could not have captured them any better.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Great Depression ended because of... ..., North Carolina in 1939. That picture was taken by Marion Post Wolcott and it shows the owner neatly pressed wearing a black suit and hat smoking a cigar. Arthur Rothstein took another picture in 1940 that one also depicts an owner of a mule dealer in Creedmoor, North Carolina neatly pressed in a black suit only smoking a cigarette as opposed to a cigar. Those were the people who didn’t care that people were suffering, they didn’t care if they had no home and most of all, they didn’t care if children went hungry. They were in it for they money. So when I look at those pictures and think what the American middle class worker at that time would think, I hatefully have to say that they would not care one way or another. You win some, you lose some.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Great Depression was a tragic era in history. To sum up the feelings and hard times that people had suffered through would be nearly impossible. But like I stated in the previous pages, the pictures tell no lies. The pictures cannot erase the expression on people’s faces or the appearance that portray. The evidence is in the pictures, it always has been and it will remain to do so until the end of time.

Essay --

Gerard Manley Hopkins, born in 1844 and who is an optimist, is also one of the greatest poets of the Victorian Era (Academy of American Poets). There's also William Wordsworth born in 1770 is another optimist and another great poet, but of the Romantic Era (Harriet Monroe). Both of these poets from two separate time periods have the same idea of society and the human population in general. Materialism is a trait that can torment both the rich and the poor and is described as both culturally destructive and very much self destructive (George Monbiot). In both poem of â€Å"God's Grandeur† by Gerard Manley Hopkins and â€Å"The World is too Much with Us† by William Wordsworth, both of these poems have similar ideas of expressing their opinions of the advancement of technology and the growth of complexed architecture. In Hopkins' piece of work, he puts together a lyrical poem that's filled with alliteration in order to make his phrases more memorable and melodious (Skylar H. Burris). An example may be â€Å"It will flame out, like shining from shook foil† (Hopkins line 2). The diction of the words â€Å"flame,† â€Å"shining,† and â€Å"shook foil† creates the imagery of warmth and liveliness. On the other hand, â€Å"grandeur† is a word used to describe magnificent and impressive (Brian Wasko), but in Hopkins' poem, he describes the â€Å"grandeur† as wearing out or is becoming thin. Hopkins message to his readers is that by people rejecting the power of God, people are also attracting negative situations into their lives. ... ...stent when it comes to the topic of God. In other words, Hopkins tends to shove religion down people's throats while Wordsworth only mentions God once in line 9, while the rest is about the departure of human and nature. In conclusion, Hopkins and Wordsworth both consider that people are beginning to get too caught up in material matters to admire nature because without nature, people wouldn't have any of the objects they would have. As a matter of fact, their would be no life, but only darkness just as Hopkins described. Hopkins and Wordsworth would both agree on the matter that humanity was and is loosing touch with nature. If they were both upset with how their society was back in their time, then they would have been terror-stricken.

Findings †secondary research Essay

The Bank of China was established in 1912 and thus has a long history of experience in the Chinese banking industry. The bank gained velocity in 1994, after it assumed the role of a state owned commercial bank and in 2003. The liberalization of Chinese economy and the growth of the banking sector has seen rapid growth of Chinese banks into self sustaining institutions of profit despite state control. Bank of China has been quick to adapt to these changes and has thus benefited over the years. The overall business profile of the Bank of China involves, commercial to include corporate as well as retail banking. In addition it has engaged in treasury business as well as conducts financial institutions banking. The corporate banking segment provides financial services to customers with a view to provide them total solutions for all their financial requirements. (About Bank of China,. 2006). On the other hand retail banking is designed to provide customers personal banking services to include savings deposits, credit carts and to the high value customers wealth management business. The treasury business segment includes provision of facilities for currency trading, management of funds, secured debts, financing within and overseas and other ancillary fund management services. As a banking financial institution, the Bank of China provides clearing, lending between banks and custodian services to banks, brokerage houses, funds and insurance operators. The bank claims to be customer centered and has a rich experience of providing banking services, thereby establishing its credentials in the rapidly growing Chinese economy. It is thus providing a complete range of services for personal as well as business banking. HSBC as a prime component of the HSBC group has a vast experience and presence in the global banking industry. HSBC has enhanced its global presence over the years by dynamically adjusting to the growing challenge of fitting in global services in a local World with typical local needs. Thus it fashions itself as the Worlds local bank. HSBC provides a wide range of personal and business banking packages on a variety of platforms to provide value based services to the customer. These have been covered in detail in the previous chapter. To highlight the same a view of the wide range of business insurance packages that have been made available by the bank, to include virtually all the possible contingencies for which insurance is required by business such as small business for turnover less than ? 1 million or less than 10 employees, commercial packaged insurance, customer packaged insurance, business car insurance, keyman insurance for principals in the business should indicate the depth of services provided by it. The insurance package also covers share holders and partners, professional indemnity and trade credit. It is therefore evident that HSBC has been providing complete banking solutions for individuals as well as corporate. Questionnaire to Customers – Bank of China and HSBC The researcher prepared a questionnaire related to the study and 40 clients across a wide cross section of personal and corporate customers were requested to take part in it. These included 10 customers each from Bank of China and HSBC, London. The questionnaire is at Appendix. Multiple choices have been provided to the respondents to ease response as well as collation and analysis. Detailed findings on response to questionnaire are as given below.

Pros and Cons of Death Penalty

Death Penalties The death penalty is a controversy discussed by many state governments in the United States, the 8th amendment in the Bill of Rights is a right that protects people from cruel and unusual punishment. This amendment originally created by our founding fathers has been the main reason for this debate; some states look at death as cruel and unusual punishment while others don’t. Though the decision to sentence someone to death is considered harsh by some judges and juries, there have been crimes and occurrences where a judge feels a death penalty is reasonable.I am against the death penalty, with my knowledge of its pros and cons it seems that the pros are over powered by the cons. Criminals who are facing life in prison, crimes of rape, torture, treason, kidnapping, murder, larceny, and perjury. People like these who can never handle themselves in the normal world; constantly being resent back to prison, or permanently in prison from their beginning sentencing. Al though these people pay their own consequences and debts by their punishment, we must also help support them; with our taxes we pay for their living.However it may sound that we invest more money paying for their stay in prison rather than their death. In reality, the process of a death penalty is more expensive and complex than life without parole. This is so because we must pay for their incarceration, automatic appeals, and federal habeas corpus appeals. This process ends up costing us millions more, millions more that can be used to create programs for teenagers to avoid ending up in the same position.People also believe that the death penalty could decrease criminal acts because it could frighten people from committing something extreme, which is also incorrect. In my perspective the death penalty does not reach the minds of most criminals because a criminal rarely believes he/she could be caught. They hold a belief that they are intelligent enough to outsmart authorities. Ther e is other whom holds such anger towards certain crimes that they believe death is a rightful punishment, but death does not â€Å"undo† a crime they have committed. I think it would be better for a criminal to think and reminisce their conscious.Their death would only put peace in their state of mind and except them from the punishments that prison holds for them. Families harmed by these criminals are sometimes frightened by the thought that they’re persecutor could escape and harm them again, however someone sentenced to life in parole in the united states has never escaped or been released. There is also a possibility that an innocent person could be convicted of a crime they did not commit, even with all our new technology and DNA testing there is always a chance of making a mistake.Though there are also pros to the death penalty, my opinion is that it should not be allowed. I say this because it is more costly than life in prison being the process is more complex and long. It does not secure the deficiency of crime acts because of criminal’s confidence that they will not be revealed. Persecuted families are just as secure due to our highly restricted and watched prisons. There is also always a possibility we convict the wrong person, these reason lead me to be against the death penalty.

Quality Child Care Matters

Mother’s have quite the dilemma when deciding when and if to return to work after giving birth to a child. Sometimes the choice is made for them due to financial reasons and sometimes they have the luxury of deciding on which is the best scenario for themselves and their families. In trying to make this decision, mothers may wonder if and how their absence and the choice of child care will affect their child. In all the years I have spend in early childhood education and child care, I think I have probably seen all of the â€Å"scenarios† and know that there is no one right answer. Each situation is different and there are so many variables, even within each variable, but the evidence is so vast that there are certainly findings to please almost everyone (Belsky, 2009, p. 1). In my research on this delicate topic, I have come to the conclusion that the only two factors that can predict positive outcomes for children’s later development is the combination of child care quality and healthy family attachments and support. As you will see, there are so many variables and each plays into the other, but safe and secure relationships at home and in child care are the winning factors in this decades long debate. There are two well-known pieces of data that have been gathered which researchers have utilized throughout the years to study the effects of maternal employment on later development. The first was conducted by the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) and began in 1979. The NLSY79 is a nationally representative sample of 12, 686 young men and women who were 12-22 years old when they were first surveyed in 1979. These individuals were interviewed annually through 1994 and are currently interviewed on a biennial basis† (US Dept. f Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, http://www. bls. gov/nls/y79summary. htm, para. 1). In 1986, the NLSY79 was used as â€Å"a separate survey of all children born to NLSY79 female respondents† to conduct more child-specific information† (US Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, http://www. bls. gov/nls/nlsy79ch. htm, para. 8). Researchers such as Jay Belsky (1988) first utilized the NLSY79 data to study the effects of early and extensive maternal employment. Belsky, etc al. oncluded â€Å"that children who had initiated care for 30 or more hours per week in their first year and whose care at this level continued through their preschool years evinced poorer academic and social functioning than did children whose full-time care began sometime later – and that this was true whether one looked at teacher reports, parent reports, peer reports, or the children’s own self-reports† (Belsky & Eggebeen, 1991, p. 1084). There were some problems with this early research and the data that was used to interpret outcomes. One of the problems was that the two groups studied (maternal employment and non-maternal employment) were too different in so many ways. â€Å"One of the most difficult methodological issues in studying this causal process is the fact that there are substantial differences between women who work soon after their child is born and women who do not† (Hill, Waldfogel, Brooks-Gunn, & Wen-Jui, 2005, p. 834). Another problem with this wave of research was that â€Å"the effects of different features of the child-care experience, particularly the quality of the care, the amount or quality of care, and the type of care† (Belsky, Vandell, Burchinal, et al. 2007, p. 682) were not taken into account at the same time. Prior research â€Å"examined one or another feature of the child-care experience, but never all three† (Belsky, Vandell, Burchinal, et al. , 2007, p. 682). The second wave of research was based on more specific data â€Å"to examine the concurrent, long-term , and cumulative influences of variations in early child care experiences on the cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, and physical development of infants and toddlers† (Friedman, NICHD, 1992, p. 1. . These researchers were interested not only in the effects of child-care, but the â€Å"endurance of effects† (Belsky, Vandell, & Burchinal, 2007, p. 682). They continued to follow up with children from 4 ? – 11 years of age. This goal of this study was â€Å"accomplished through the implementation of a study design that takes into account the complex concurrent, long-term and cumulative interactions among characteristics of the family and home, of the child care environments, and of the child† (Friedman, 1992, p. 6). Researchers such as Jennifer Hill and Jane Waldfogel (2005) utilized the NICHD data to determine the effects of maternal employment with easier access to more varied situations. They broke up their results into four categories – Comparisons Between Worked After First Year and Never Worked, Comparisons Between Worked Part Time in the First Year and Did Not Work Until After the First Year, Comparisons Between Worked Full Time in the First Year Versus Did Not Work Until After the First Year, and Comparisons Between Worked Full Time in the First Year Versus Worked Part Time in the First Year (pp. 839-842). These researchers concluded that â€Å"negative effects of maternal employment on children’s cognitive outcomes were found in our analyses primarily for children whose mothers were employed full time in the first year postbirth as compared with children whose mothers postponed work until after their child’s first year of life and also as compared with mothers who worked part time in the first year. Negative effects in terms of increased externalizing behavioral problems were evident in each of these comparisons involving mothers who worked full time in the first year† (Hill, Waldfogel, Brooks-Gunn, and Hann, 2005, p. 44). Although the use of the NICHD study did allow researchers to analyze the data utilizing more correlations between diverse situations, there is even later research that delves even deeper into the mixed bag of maternal work situations, family dynamics, home-life, child-care situations, etc. Heather Joshi, et al. , extended the studies even furthe r by including events such as, â€Å"additional information concerning the types of jobs that they return to: are these jobs routinized or do they provide a degree of autonomy† (2008, p. ). Also included in these studies is the â€Å"interactions between our maternal employment measures and additional maternal characteristics and behaviors† and the â€Å"differences by gender† (Joshi, Cooksey, Verropoulou, Menaghan, & Tzavidis, 2008, p. 2). The results of these more recent studies lend â€Å"only limited support to negative effect of mother’s employment per se during infancy and the pre-school years on later child well-being† (Joshi, Cooksey, Verropoulou, Menaghan, & Tzavidis, 2008, p. ). The extent and expansion of variables for research surrounding maternal employment continues to grow. Joshi, et al. , are currently working on expanding on their set of â€Å"both maternal employment and maternal/family background variables† Joshi, Cooksey, Verropoulou, Menaghan, & Tzavidis, 2008, p. 3) which should be completed sometime in 2009 (the results for which I have not yet been able to locate). There are four questions that have motivated current research on this topic. They have been identified as: Does extensive child care in the first year of life disrupt attachment between mother and child, what is the influence of varying types of in child care quality on children’s development, do long hours spent in child-care add to later behavior problems, and what are the effects of the types of child-care that are available? Mother-Child Attachment The earliest studies surrounding maternal employment and attachment came up with many mixed results which is one of the main reasons that the NICHD decided to begin their own study (1986). Assessment of the mother-child attachment relationship is made using various measures, including the Strange Situation† (Friedman, NICHD, 1992, p. 12). The Strange Situation was a psychological study designed by Mary D. Ainsworth which consisted â€Å"of eight episodes presented in a standardized order for all subjects† (1978, pp. 32-33) which tested the reactions of children, ages 12 – 18 months, w hilst in the presence of mother only, mother-stranger, stranger only, and alone (including the return of mother during each separation from her). According to the NICHD, â€Å"there were no significant main effects of child-care experience (quality, amount, age of entry, stability, or type of care) on attachment security or avoidance† and there were â€Å"significant main effects of maternal sensitivity and responsiveness† (NICHD, 1997, https://secc. rti. org/abstracts. cfm? abstract=9). These negative affects in attachment were also amplified when â€Å"combined with poor quality child care, more than minimal amounts of child care, or more than one care arrangement† (NICHD, 1997, https://secc. ti. org/abstracts. cfm? abstract=9). Child Care Quality The quality of the child-care of a child proves to be one of the most important factors when addressing the impact of child-care on child development. When assessing the impact of child-care quality, it is important to look at child-staff ratio, group size, and caregiver education and/or training. The quality of the interactions between caregivers and children, between peers, as well as how caregivers facilitate these interactions is also a tremendous indicator of child-care quality. According to the NICHD, children who experience high-quality child-care have higher scores on achievement and language tests, show fewer behavioral issues and better social skills. Programs like the federally funded Head Start can also function as an intervention for children from at-risk families/situations. In 2007, Belsky conducted a study based on the NICHD findings and concluded â€Å"that quality and type of care remained associated with children’s vocabulary and problem behavior† (2007, p. 297). In a 2002 study (also based on NICHD), researchers Hill, Waldfogel, & Brooks-Gunn concluded that children who participated in no non-maternal care and home-based, non-maternal care â€Å"would have gained the most from high quality center-based care and moreover, would have more consistently remained the bulk of these benefits overtime† (2002, p. 1). Hours Spent in Child Care Although the findings seem to be mixed, there is some evidence that the amount of hours spent in child care may be a cause for some behavior problems, namely aggressive behavior. The NICHD researchers (Belsky, Hill), did conclude that â€Å"children with more experience in child-care centers were rated by their teachers as showing somewhat more disruptive behavior in sixth grade† (National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, n. d. , p. 2), but more recent research (Joshi, Cooksey, et al. ) explored â€Å"various interactions between our maternal employment measures and additional maternal characteristics and behaviors† (2008, p. 2) to be added risk factors for behavioral issues. Type of Child Care There are also mixed findings in the effects of the type of child care situation a young child experiences. I feel rather strongly that a primary caregiver relationship is best for the young infants entering child care (whether it be in a more formal, group care setting or a private situation). Unfortunately most group child care programs do not offer a primary caregiver model which definitely contributes to the disorganization and unpredictability of the care that a child receives. With a primary care model, caregivers can â€Å"promote a stronger attachment than might happen if attachment were left to chance or if all the caregivers relate to the whole group without differentiation† (Gonzalez-Mena, 2007, p. 49). Penelope Leach, et al. also state that â€Å"children who experience greater caregiver stability while attending early years settings have been found to have more secure relationships with their caregivers and to show higher degrees of social competence† (2008, p. 180). When child care provider implement practices that support child development (whether it be group care of private care), the results are positive. What it all seems to come down to is that the effects of maternal employment are complex and vary from family to family, child care situation to child care situation, and parental style/characteristics. The NICHD researchers clearly suggest that â€Å"we seek to move beyond the determination of possible risks that may be presented by child care as a unitary category. Rather, we want to find out how the effects of non-maternal care vary as a function of different variables such as child care quality, the extent of its use, characteristics of the children and of their family and home† (Friedman, NICHD, 1992, p. 10). These factors combined with family income/education and child gender make for a very complicated study. One factor seems to influence the other and there are so many variables. The one thing that does stand out in all of the research is that developmental outcomes are dependent upon the quality of child care and family dynamics. When a child is feeling supported by both his/her parents and the people that care for him/her, the outcomes are favorable. Quality child care programs support cognitive, physical, social-emotional development, but unfortunately so many families do not have access to these programs due to their lack of availability and the high cost of most quality programs. A proof in point is that I am currently a private child care provider and due to my expertise, I am able to charge higher rates than others in my field, but only families that can afford these rates are able to hire me. The sad thing is that â€Å"a national study of 100 child care centers found that 92% of them provided inadequate care to infants† and â€Å"it was reported that two in five centers were rated less than minimal† (FSU Center for Prevention & Early Intervention Policy, http://www. peip. fsu. edu/resourceFiles/resourceFile_81. pdf). Keep in mind that these figures are based on child care centers with varied tuition rates in various parts of the county. Those numbers are just staggering and unacceptable, but make perfect sense when you take into account that child care providers are usually not professionally trained or minimally trained and receive very low wages. Teacher training and regulations on child care centers are getting stricter which is a good si gn. More and more mothers are returning to work and it is only cost effective that the investments we make in early child care practices will result in better adjusted and academically successful children in the years to come. References Ainsworth, M. (1978). Patterns of attachment: a psychological study of the strange situation Philadelphia: Laurence Earlbaum Associates, Inc. Belsky, J. & Eggebeen, D. (1991, January 1). Early and extensive maternal employment and young children’s socioemotional development: children of the national longitudinal survey of youth. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 53(4), 1083-98. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. EJ440714). Retrieved August 15, 2009 from ERIC database. Belsky, J. , Vandell, D. , Burchinal, M. , Clark-Stewart, K. , McCartney, K. , & Owen, M. (2007, March 1). Are there long-term effects of early child care?. Child Development, 78(2), 681-701, (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. EJ756658). Retrieved August 15 From ERIC database. Belsky, J. (2009, March). Effects of child care on development. Institute for the Study of Children, Families and Social Issues. Birkbeck University of London. Gonzalez-Mena, J. Infants, toddlers, and caregivers. Boston: McGraw-Hill. FSU Center for Prevention & Early Intervention Policy. (n. d. ). Research on quality child care For infants and toddlers. Retrieved August 25, 2009 from https://www. cpeip. fsu. edu. Hill, J. , Waldfogel, J. , & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2002, September 1). Different effects of high quality Care. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 21(4), 601-627. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. EJ772831). Retrieved August 15, 2009 from ERIC database. Hill, J. , Waldfogel, J. , Brooks-Gunn, J. , & Han, W. (2005, November 1). Maternal employment and child development: a fresh look using newer methods. Developmental Psychology, 41(6), 833-850. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. EJ733669). Retrieved August 25, 2009. Joshi, H. , University of London, Cooksey, E. , The Ohio State University, Verropoulou, G. , University of Piraeus, Menaghan, E, The Ohio State University, & Tzavidis, N. , University of Manchester. (2008). Combining childrearing with work: do maternal employment experiences compromise child development. Retrieved August 12, 2009 from http://iussp2009. princeton. edu/download. aspx? submissionId=92322. Leach, P. Barnes, J. , Malmberg, L. , Sylva, K. , & Stein, A. (2008, February 1). The quality of different types of child care at 10 and 18 months: a comparison between types and factors related to quality. Early Child Development and Care, 178(2), 177-209. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. EJ782856). Retrieved August 15, 2009 from ERIC database. Motherhood-extent and effects of maternal employment. (n. d. ). Retrieved August 26, 2009 from http://family. jrank. org/pages/1187/Motherhood-Extent-Effects-Maternal- Employment. html National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. Scientific briefs: how early child care affects later development. (2007). Retrieved August 12, 2009 from http://www. developingchild. net. The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care: A comprehensive Longitudinal Study of Young Children’s Lives. (1992, June 1). (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED353087). Retrieved August 15, 2009 from ERIC database. NICHD Early Child Care Research Network. (1987). The effects of infant child care on infant- Mother attachment security: results of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care. Child Development, 68.