Thursday, August 27, 2020

Social Exclusion in Social Work

Social Exclusion in Social Work This point of this article is to examine the job of the social specialist in tending to social avoidance and segregation and the effect that such issues have on people, gatherings and networks. I am likewise going to exhibit my comprehension of hostile to harsh practice and moral issues that social laborers face, especially in the Welsh setting. In like manner, since the time the late 1980s there has been a rising comprehension of the impact of abuse and separation on people, gatherings and networks (Thompson, 1997). All the more as of late, hostile to prejudicial practice has surfaced as a fundamental point of convergence supporting social work strategy, hypothesis and practice (Pierson, 2002). Consequently, with the point of doing their job usefully, social specialists ought to create and maintain an attention to why against harsh and hostile to biased practice viewpoints are indispensable and the methodology that they can take when managing segregation, persecution and social proh ibition. Ribs, as different countries, is just a case of a multi-social society with different divergent parts of assorted variety and individual encounters. In this manner, sexual orientation, class, language, age, ethnic gathering, along with other social components, by and large affect a people social personality, experience, and attention to the world that they occupy (Williams, 2007). In light of this, examining the impacts of separation and social avoidance, and handling matters of mistreatment, may incite various challenges for social work specialists. In any case, important practice apparatuses have been grown in order to challenge disparities and support social consideration (Thompson 1997; Pierson 2002). In like manner, it very well may be said that unprejudiced nature is principal to social correspondence. In such manner, people and gatherings must accept that they can share completely in the network and be thought of as equivalent individuals. In circumstances where this isn't the truth, people could be exposed to separation, separation, impediment and partiality. Specifically cases, this could cause ages of people living on the edges of society. In this manner, the thoughts of social prohibition and separation are especially in equal. Social orders ailing in correspondence where explicit people or gatherings are oppressed can cause avoidance. Likewise, social rejection advances imbalance and separation (www.socialexclusion.gov.uk). The Social Exclusion Unit outlined social avoidance as what can happen when people, gatherings or networks experience a mix of simultaneous challenges, for example, joblessness, poor abilities, low salaries, poor lodging, horror conditions, awful wellbe ing and family breakdown (www.socialexclusion.gov.uk). In like manner, separation develops when an individual or gathering is dealt with horribly, when contrasted and others in comparable conditions, on account of their age, sexual direction, handicap, racial or ethnic root, religion or conviction, or sex. (Adams, Dominelli and Payne, 1998). As needs be, it tends to be said that socially prohibited people or gatherings are unequipped for having a full impact in the network because of a variety of challenges they are stood up to with, for example, joblessness, absence of aptitudes, sick wellbeing or disparity. As often as possible, explicit people or gatherings are bound to experience these troubles. For instance, people that experience the ill effects of an inability or mental sick wellbeing run over misgiving and narrow mindedness from different people, regularly got from wrong convictions about such conditions. Such shame couldn't just strengthen singular misery yet could likewise hinder the individual from looking for important help. Subsequently, such social avoidance and segregation could deter access to administrations and assets, for example, lodging, business, parental rights, migration, medicinal services and access to equity (Sayce, 1998). These people or gatherings that are rejected from society need to overcome these hindrances to circumstances that different individuals from the network appreciate. It has been archived that Wales has probably the most hindered networks all through Europe (Williams, 2004). Also, the Assembly Government alludes to districts of stamped hardship exemplified by reliance on benefits and a need for work openings (National Assembly for Wales, 2009). Notwithstanding deficiently salaried or absence of work, poor aptitudes have likewise been noted as an essential reason for joblessness, financial inertia and destitution for people, and in 2001, 20% of grown-ups of working age in Wales had no capabilities (National Assembly f or Wales, 2009). For 2008, the youthful grown-up (16-24) joblessness rates was 16%. Thusly, practically 50% of the people in Wales without work are under 25 (www.jrt.org.uk). Such absence of possibilities supports the likelihood of certain people or gatherings being unequipped for completely coordinating into the network. Accordingly, those socially prohibited can encounter sentiments of stress, unexpected weakness and disconnection because of low expectations for everyday comforts and constrained access to administrations (National Assembly for Wales, 2009). Different citizenry can experience more prominent degrees of nervousness and decreased portability because of diminished social solidarity and enlarged worry for crime (Pierson, 2002). As needs be, the social laborer has the vital duty of improving the nature of presence for people, gatherings and networks and testing the triggers of social prohibition and segregation. Subsequently the job and assignment of the social laborer is intricate. The job goes across strengthening, directing, promotion, organization, needs evaluation, care the executives and social control (Scourfield, Holland and Young, 2008). Social work specialists ought to be devoted to human rights and uniformity and endeavor to empower and bolster people, gatherings and networks that experience the harming outcomes of social bad form. Consequently, the social work calling advances social change, critical thinking in human connections, and the strengthening and freedom of individuals to improve prosperity. Using hypotheses of human conduct and social frameworks, social work intercedes at focuses where individuals collaborate with their surroundings. Standards of human rights and social equity are crucial to social work (www.ifsw.org.uk). This shows social laborers have an obligation to go up against oppressive perspectives towards people because of ability, age, ethnicity, sex, class, conjugal position, political convictions, racial or other physical attributes, or sexuality (www.ifsw.org.uk). Inside their job, social specialists ought to have an obligation to progress in the direction of a comprehensive society by going up against conditions that advance social avoidance, abuse or potentially difficulty. Henceforth, Pierson (2002) has recorded five broad structure obstructs for social specialists to utilize practically speaking to successfully work with socially avoided people, gatherings and networks and at last advance social consideration. The principal building square includes the hugeness of focusing on salary and for the social laborer to have a full comprehension of the advantages framework generally (Pierson, 2002: 42-47). The subsequent structure square includes the part played by systems mutually as a premise of solid aggregate help for people, gatherings and networks and as a commonsense methods for social laborers (Pierson, 2002: 47-51). The third s tructure square envelops associations between residents, gatherings, deliberate, private and strict associations and legal administrations where all encompassing, intelligent activity can be completed on the ground (Pierson, 2002: 51-56). The fourth structure square envelops a few points of interest in creating raised degrees of administration client and neighborhood investment in the network. For instance, enactment, for example, the Children Act 1989, the NHS and Community Care Act of 1990 and the Disabled Persons Representation Act in 1996, required nearby specialists to counsel intimately with clients when they embrace evaluations and devise care plans, and in the subsequent audits of how those plans are really unfurling (Pierson 2002: 57). Likewise, recommendations by Government, for instance Quality Protects, New Deal for Communities and the Best Value system require resident contribution (Pierson, 2002:57). At last, the fifth structure square includes the significance of the entire network and helping inhabitant capacity through neighborhood enhancements. For instance, inclusion in network exercises, childcare, taking care of neighbors, credit associations and neighborhood watch (Pierson 2002: 65). Also, in executing their job, social specialists constantly face moral issues when finding testing standards and commitments (Mattison, 2000). Henceforth, the standards or morals of freedom might be at difference with a duty of care, yet additionally between the prosperity for the individual and the prosperity of different citizenry (Mattison, 2000). Consequently, it is urgent for social laborers to painstakingly think about their own standards and practice. This is central in light of the fact that despite the fact that structures like the expert code of morals are made accessible to offer reasonable help, to a certain extent, utilizing ones own attentiveness when settling on choices is unavoidable (Mattison, 2000). Social laborers should likewise go up against moral issues with respect to secrecy. Thus, social specialists regularly make decisions regarding whether it is esteemed important to uncover secret data to outside associations without the people consent in order to ensure s ociety or follow lawful decisions or enactment. A further moral issue is proficient paternalism or helpfulness, which implies that social laborers may need to make decisions about whether to put limitations on people that participate in self-hurting conduct, for instance substance abuse or dismissing certain administrations (Clark, 1998). In addition, it appear

Saturday, August 22, 2020

The Leaving Summary

This is a short story composed by Budge Wilson name â€Å"The Leaving†. Toward the start of the story, the storyteller of the story who is a multi year old young lady named Sylvie is out of nowhere woken up in the promptly in the first part of the day by her mother. Then again, her mother who is a housewife named Elizabeth approached her to prepare for an outing however she is too languid to even consider waking up since it's a Sunday morning. So her mom drives her to wake up and get some garments together. When she is prepared they leave and start strolling towards town, Sylvie was interested and started to pose inquiries about where they were going however her mom didn't answer.They then jumped on a train and advanced toward Halifax, yet Sylvie had not known at this point. On the train she was all the while posing inquiries and Elizabeth was as yet not replying. They at long last showed up in Halifax and they previously went to a modest lodging, Sylvie felt that the spot was stunning a direct result of the basic things like running water. Elizabeth had just arranged what they would do here in the large city, so they set off. They circumvented town, and ended up at the college Elizabeth revealed to Sylvie about it.They came back to a messy house loaded up with grimy dishes, when they strolled in the entryway Lester Elizabeth’s spouse requested she do the dishes, not calling her Elizabeth yet just calling her ladies. When she was tired of it she defended her self requesting that she be called her name and that the young men help with cleaning, and furthermore to be regarded. Sylvie saw this and knew there is a superior method to carry on with your life so she went on to college, and is carrying on with a decent life.

Friday, August 21, 2020

How to Make Your Proposal Writing More Effective

How to Make Your Proposal Writing More EffectiveProposal writing is one of the most important parts of the job search process. Not only does it establish the job seeker's credentials and abilities, but it also helps a potential employer to determine if you are a good fit for the job. Although the proposal writing process is not that difficult to accomplish, there are a few things that could be done to make it more effective.Writing a proposal is more than just a formal document; it is also an artistic creation. It must come from a place of creativity and originality. The proposal writing process is not meant to be copied verbatim. This makes it necessary for you to come up with your own ideas for the document.One great way to do this is to create an outline. This outlines the points that you want to cover in the proposal. The outline should include the entire job description. It is also essential to be sure that the outline includes the dates you expect to have all of your financial obligations met. An outline can also include key requirements, qualifications, specific information about the position, or any other information that you feel is important.Once you have created the outline, it is time to begin writing the actual proposal. You should write down as many goals as possible and as much detail as possible. A large portion of the proposal will be devoted to explaining how you can help the employer. Create a short summary of your experience, education, or training. In order to explain your skills, include the kinds of work you can perform and the skills that you are able to provide to the employer.The proposal must focus on the reasons why the employer is hiring you. If the employer is looking for someone who is a perfect fit for the position, then it should be obvious in the proposal. However, it is equally important to state the position you are qualified for and the job you have held before that. Although the employer may not need you right away, they wi ll be interested in knowing that you have had some experience in the position and that you will be a good fit for the job.The proposal should also explain the qualifications that make you qualified for the position and why the employer should hire you. It is also important to describe how you would be the best candidate for the position. Describe your strengths and weaknesses, and the ability you have to provide a valuable service to the employer. State your strengths and your weaknesses, and make sure to link these to the job description.The proposal must show that you are knowledgeable about the job description and the position. It is also important to understand the company, state your hobbies and interests, and how you would be able to contribute to the company. It is also important to describe how you will be able to benefit the employer in some way and how you can be of benefit to the employer as a whole.Every company will have a set of needs that they want to fulfill, so list out the things that you want to accomplish in this position. List out your skills and abilities as well as the things that you have been able to do to make you a better applicant. By completing a proposal, you will be able to show off your writing skills and your ability to write clearly.

Monday, May 25, 2020

National Culture and Management - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 10 Words: 3105 Downloads: 8 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Management Essay Type Essay any type Level High school Did you like this example? National Culture and Management National culture is very diverse in the UK and affects management and organisation in a number ways. National culture includes the pervasive, shared beliefs, norms, values, and symbols that are occur in daily. National culture is normally transmitted by symbols and rituals and many often take these for granted and this includes management of organisations. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "National Culture and Management" essay for you Create order Management today is bound by many rules and regulations and have to work in accordance with national cultures to ensure that their companies get mainstream attention whilst taking care of the norms displayed by the nations people. This paper will look at national culture at the organisational-unit state of multi-business firms and how it affects management and how organizing takes place National culture is known to trigger changes in the corporate management control to benefit local business-unit circumstances. The role of management is more complex than many people contend. To put it simply, management adopt holistic responsibility for the outcomes of projects. If projects or organisational objectives are not satisfactorily achieved then the management takes full responsibility for this due to the fact that they set out the criteria for achieving such aims and oversaw the entire project. Managers have numerous roles which imply critical thinking on their behalf and the gener al rule of thumb is that management entails the effective planning, leading and control of resources in order to meet objectives as set out in the mission statement. Indeed the resources in question fluctuate on the basis of the type of industry the organisation trades in but from a general perspective such resources include personnel with their abilities and experience in addition to non-human elements i.e. machinery, raw materials IT and capital all of which play a pivotal part in contributing to the role of management. Work from Mead (1994 pg 55) shows that national culture at the multi-level data reveal small business-unit effects relative to corporate effects. The work from Mead suggests that in the presence of dominant national culture, management and the organisation work harder to uniformly implement control within their firms to reflect national culture conditions. Estienne (1997) defines culture as – â€Å"Culture consists of patterns, explicit and impl icit, of and for behaviour acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievement of human groups, including their embodiments in artefacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional ideas and especially their attached values; culture systems may, on the one hand, be considered as products of action, on the other hand, as conditioning influences upon further action† The graphs shows how national culture is divided out Manifestation of Culture at Different Levels of Depth (Mead – 2005) Culture in the narrowest sense also refers to knowledge of the arts. This includes music and sculpture. The concept of culture which is taken on by people through different ways of thinking and acting or other cultural issues in the wider sense all affect management. According to Jackson (2004 pg 23) there are 2 diagnostic models that help the manager. These are Hofstedes Model of National Culture and the 7d Cultural Dimensions Model. Accord ing to the Hofstede Model of National Culture there are clear elements and concerns about equality and power distance. Power distance is the extent to which people accept inequality in power. In companies there is likely to be antagonism and conflict as employees may be unwilling to accept higher power e.g. some employees may dislike their manager because they are bossed around and this may affect morale and motivation in an adverse way. Furthermore, the concepts of the Hofstedes Model of National Culture underlines the importance of management and organising when trying to manage individuals and the groups within society that attempt to balance out collectivism and individualism. Other components of the model which relate to national culture include gender roles i.e. masculinity and Confucian values. In addition to establishing and deciphering tasks, management take account of this model and that consider aspects relation to Communication/ Linguistics The geographical variance in organisational location involves a linguistic barrier where language is not easily comprehended in some parts of the world. Jargon and slang are regional and thus renders them inappropriate for other geographical locations. Management seeks to reduce the usage of jargon to minimise ambiguity amongst employees particularly in a multinational organisation. Cultural values Cultures are highly sensitive so the conformity to cultural imbalances highlights the role of management. Semiotic and verbal messages are interpreted differently by many cultures and the role of management dictates that they are privy to such sensitivities. Many other roles include working as a co-coordinator in ensuring that staff is progressing with their work smoothly. Familiarity with teams abilities forms the basis of coordination and ensures that they can collaborate effectively without compromising the output. Should there be a discrepancy in working relations then the role of managem ent dictates that they intervene and remedy the problem to ensure that disruption is kept to a minimum. The role of management entails time consciousness and facilitating as contended by Quinn (2002). Its important to be proactive since time is money in business and adopting a somewhat relaxed approach can ultimately be catastrophic. The role of management implies that they need to show real conviction in their approach to motivating, encouraging and rewarding their personnel. Similarly, its imperative for management to be innovative and empower their staff so that they can learn from each other and share skills which will benefit the organisation production. However, in different cultures people are likely to interpret this type of information differently and, as a result, may take offence from this. The dissemination of knowledge provides a foundation upon which to base a learning culture within the organisation. Management have an obligation to coach employees and adopt a d emocratic stance where they seek to improve morale and confidence and suggest training regimes to improve confidence and working relations. Employees can find certain instructions as being vague and open to interpretation and coaching can eliminate this ambiguity by providing greater clarification. In many organisations managers are democratic meaning that they adopt a political role where they seek to negotiate with stakeholders to maintain a harmonised relationship and this is due to national culture and what the country expects. Being political also ensures the general web of contacts is widened giving organisations greater access to resources. Every management regime has a unique style and likewise their objectives are also unique and the management role needs to reflect the objectives set out. In general development is the key in achieving goals. Development provides growth and stability. Torrington (2001) cites case where cross cultural themes helped the manager to divi de the components into smaller parts. The case was from Waitrose in France where the manager used the Hofstede model to simplify the components and relax the regulations concerning power and allowing workers to work freely with no conflict appearing. On the basis of the evidence cross cultural management helps managers in making easier the recruitment and selection process as well as creating organisational compatibility. However there are obstacles regarding culture and how various cultures respond differently when faced with different situations. In this context managers need to balance out their plans. As cited by Hodgetts et al (2000 pg 54) the concepts of Hofstedes individualism foundation is about the preference for a loosely knit social network. In this network individuals almost always look out for their own self interests. Collectivism in contrast is a tightly knit social network where individuals look after each other and companies protect their members interests. Through linking this concept to organisations, individualism is likely to lead to a network where there may be a range of opinions as workers only look to protect their own self-interests and may not be doing what in the best interest of the organisation as a whole. Through linking collectivism to organisations, if every worker looked out for each other good communication links are likely to result between them which is likely to lead to better input into tasks and objectives and so favourably affecting motivation levels in the organisations. As well as this there is common ground in that everyone would have similar beliefs since everybody is on the lookout for the self-interests of others. The work of Hofstede shows how individualism is closely linked to the wealth of nations e.g. from evidence from Lee (2008) we can see that the UK and USA are very individualist whereas countries like Pakistan and Columbia are very collectivist nations. The final dimension of national cult ure according to the work of Hofstede is masculinity and femininity. Masculinity is known by Hurn (2000 pg 12) to be a cultural preference where the aim is to strive towards achievement, heroism, assertiveness and material success. Femininity on the other hand is a cultural preference for cooperation, group decision making and quality of life. Through linking the concepts as provided by Hofstede to management and organisations there are some occupations that according to society only men are capable of doing e.g. a mechanic and there are some occupations that are more suitable for females such as an air hostess. However, today both of these occupations are widely taken on by both genders since people are looking to expand their learning horizons rather than worrying about what type of job it is. Evidence from Mead (2005 pg 34) cites the slogan â€Å" if you want to do it then it shouldnt matter about gender roles† This is exactly the slogan in cross cultural management that mangers have thought about and found that the female gender is more effective at doing certain jobs which according to society were more male orientated. (Mead, 2005) Looking more into the dimensions of national culture and linking this to management, there is a clear bond between individualism and power distance e.g. the US has a high individualism rate and below an average rate of power distance. (Lucas et al, 2006 pg 28) This means that there is more focus on self-interest and so the reverse trend is that they do not accept inequality easily. With respect to collectivism and management take for example a third country like India where people who work in a group to boost communication and motivation means great loyalty. The management always takes the lead role as is expected and allows others to take part after he or she has spoken. This is known as high power distance which is common in third world countries. In a collectivist approach though there are likely to be ways in which subordinates can affect the managements way of thinking e.g. taking the first step to complete a task before the management does. As a result of this evidence provided by Lucas (2006) it can be claimed that there is a link in the organisations to power distance and uncertainty avoidance. Some companies always look to avoid uncertainty and due to this the worker is aware where they stand e.g. working for the government. Hofstedes research established that in different organisations and situations different nationalities were gaining different power distance, uncertainty avoidance relationships, e.g. in Germany laying down regulations and guidelines was found to be a method of equalling out this relationship whilst in the UK improving communication elements which existed between different departments with more training proving to be a help. (Demers, 2002) The theory associated with group dynamics is related to an interactive process that is primarily linked to alt ering patterns of tension with the ultimate aim of incorporating cohesion within a team of different culture. The way in which a team is impacted by dynamics assists in determining how leadership and dominant sub group patterns unravel. The effects of group dynamics would therefore influence players from a behavioural perspective and how their attitudes are affected over a certain period of time. Any changes can either be indelible or temporary. If the former theory is correlated to the sport of rugby, then the captain, vice-captain, the starting line-up and the substitutes would have an important role in team cohesion. The status of an individual player is a massive element with regards to their powers of influence but similarly the character of a player is similarly imperative. A player with a history of absence has no status and as a consequence can have a detrimental impact on the team though this would mainly depend on the players ability to impose their expertise and no tions on the team. The final element is motivation which according to theorists such as Blassingame (2002 pg 75) is closely related to individualism-collectivism. Research shows that the USA has the highest motivation factor due to individualism therefore employees are realising their needs. In a collectivist approach workers first of all realise their duties towards the group and so self-motivation would not be a primary aim according to such an approach. Motivation is culture bound. Maslow strongly emphasises that individualism has led to the expectancy and equity theories of motivation. These theories highlight rational and individual thinking as a basis of human behaviour. As a result the emphasis is placed on achievement. The theories dont offer universal explanations of motivation but reflect the values system of different countries and their cultures. Cultural Awareness and Extent of Global Involvement – source Stonehouse 2000 Today, it appears that there are a huge number of languages that are used in organisations for business reasons. For the management of organisations who want to expand their businesses into international markets according to Selmer (2008) will come across huge communication challenges and barriers. Such barriers will relate to communication which is likely to increase difficulty in communicating in those countries that do not share a common language with them. To put it simply, management are likely to find it a lot more difficult in communicating in a nation that does not share the same language as they do and so cross cultural management is likely to impede business success. International business is extremely dependable on good communication. Jackson (2004 pg 46) cites that language is the primary component behind this dependency as organisations more and more increasingly begin dealing with other companies many of whom communicate in a different language. Due to this it becomes more likely that there will be an increase in the number of problems that they are likely to come across. To challenge these difficulties managers need to blend in the cross cultural atmosphere with effective communication mechanisms that must run inherently throughout their organisation. There are four levels of management within the management hierarchy all of which comprise of distinctive roles. The hierarchy consists of top management, middle management and first line management with the chief executive sitting at the top of the tree. The role of first line management implies arguably the most important tasks in an organisation. The role involves obtaining the trust and dedication of front line staff as well as adhering to customer requirements. The middle and senior management are simultaneously consulted in order to maximise success. The role mainly involves daily supervision of workers to maintain working cycles. The experience they gain from exposure to such an environment stands them in good stead in moving up the managerial hierarchy. However, there is still the issue of communication and misinterpretation and this presents a large problem when management organise work and try to motivate their workers. There may indeed be difficulty in communicating and this may lead to larger problems, but in many cases there are ways in which organisations have tried to reduce problems and increase motivation by simplifying communication elements and which lead to better motivation amongst people. These include the use of simple and basic language with lingo and slang being cut out. Another way is to rely more on written forms of communication so that records and transcripts of what has been said can be kept for checking purposes. This cuts downs on misinterpretation. Due to this companies and management show greater level of formalisation than had previously existed. Another good example would be e-commerce. This is a cross cultural method where the website exists in difference languages to make all round interpretation easier. In a similar way there is ethics. Ethics will vary. Some will be ethical by choosing particular markets to target whilst other will just want to make money. The essay has shown effects of national culture on management and organisations because as different cultures have different beliefs about how to do things, these beliefs converge and lead to divergence views which management must use in organising their organisations due to diverse cultures. Different countries have different ways in coping with their cultures and due to this there are different levels of power and uncertainty. National culture varies in each country and transnational companies who look to expand their markets need to take account of these cultures so that when they enter the country in question they know exactly what to expect when employees people from within that country. There are clear issues which relate to language, motivation etc. and these need to be fully understand before the management can go ahead with the expansion. Reference Torrington, D/Hall, L/Haylor, I/Myers, J (1991) Employee resourcing, Management studies 2 series. Institute of Personnel management. Lucas, R, Lupton, B and Mathieson, H (2006) Human resource management in an International context. CIPD publishing. Jackson, T (2004) International HRM, a cross-cultural approach. SAGE publications. Mead, R (2005) International Management, cross-cultural dimensions. Blackwell publishing. Padmanand, J (2000) Doing Business in India, Street-smart entrepreneurs In an imperfect marketplace. SAGE publications. Maslow, Abraham H. A Theory Of Human Motivation. Psychology Review (July 1943). [2] Harrison R. Understanding your organisations character. Harvard Business Review. May-June 1972. 1 Heenan, D.A. and Perlmutter, H.V. (1979). Multinational Organisation Development: A Social Architectural Approach. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Demers J. 2002, Crossing the cultural divides, Volume of CMA Management, pp.28-30 Hurn B.F. Fenkins M. 2000, International peer group development, Industrial and Commercial Training, vol.32, no.4, pp. 128-131 Lee G. Rowe A. 2001, Cross-cultural awareness, HR Magazine, pp.139-142 Selmer J., Torbiorn I. and Corinna T 1998, Sequential cross-cultural training for expatriate business manager: pre-departure and post-arrival, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, vol.9, no.5, pp 831-832, 835-840 Tsui, K.L. 2004 Interview: Mr. David Nip , Production Co-ordinator, 28 December 2004, MIBT, unpublished, Melb, Vic. (Appendix 1) Strategic Management and Business Policy, Thomas L. Wheelen, Routledge, London, 2008 Global and Transnational Business, George Stonehouse, Palgrave, London, 2000 Rules of Management, Richard Templar Prentice Hall, 2004 Estienne M., 1997, The art of cross-cultural management: an alternative approach to training and development, European Industrial Training, vol 21, no. 1, pp14-18 Blassingame K. M., 2002, Strangers in strange l ands, Employee Benefits News, pp. 31-32 Mead R., 1994, International Management: Cross-Cultural Dimensions, Blackwell Publishing, Vic Hodgetts R. M. and Luthans F., 2000, International Management: Culture, Strategy and Behavior, McGraw-Hill Higher Education, USA

Friday, May 15, 2020

Euthanasi The Issue Of Euthanasia - 1675 Words

The question of euthanasia, also referred to as mercy killing, is among the most disputable topic on ethics in America. It refers to the intentional putting to death of a person with an incurable or painful disease intended as an act of mercy (Newhealthguide.org, 2016). Euthanasia is closely related to doctor assisted suicide. However, the two acts differ in that, euthanasia means injecting a terminally sick patient with lethal dose of a drug or withdrawing feeding tubes to let the patient die of starvation. Assisted suicide on the other hand refers to the process where a physician avails a lethal drug to the patient. The patient or his/her next of kin usually must consent to the action. By January 2016, the practice was allowed in the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, Colombia and Luxembourg. Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland, Germany, Japan, and Albania, while in the United States; it is legal in the states of Washington, Oregon, Vermont, New Mexico, Montana and California. Thi s document will argue about why euthanasia and physician assisted suicide should not be legalized in the remaining 44 states of the U.S. Position Statement Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide are mild words used to describe murder and suicide, and should not be legalized. Supporting Reason The argument that legalizing euthanasia could be used to prevent medical cost of terminally ill patients from ballooning beyond the financial ability of their family is not justifiable based on theShow MoreRelatedEuthanasi The Issue Of Euthanasia1427 Words   |  6 Pages Euthanasia: The main purpose of this essay is to focus on the controversy surrounding the issue of euthanasia and analyse the pros and cons arguments regarding euthanasia. This essay will aim to analyse in further details the complexity of the matter regarding euthanasia and will argue the pros and cons of euthanasia and will also debate the major impact that legalising euthanasia might have on the society, on the medical industry andRead MoreEuthanasi The Issue Of Euthanasia2130 Words   |  9 Pagesis no point to living, the issue of euthanasia often arises. Euthanasia is technically defined as â€Å"the act or practice of killing someone who is very sick or injured in order to prevent any more suffering (Merriam 1). In America people should have the right to end their life if they chose. The right to life and the right to private and family life under the European convention on human rights should be interpreted broadly to include decisions about the topic of euthanasia is one tha t is highly disputedRead MoreEuthanasi The Issue Of Euthanasia Essay1780 Words   |  8 PagesEuthanasia is a debatable topic worldwide. Should people be allowed to decide when to terminate their own life? Some terminally ill patients want to be put out of their misery because there is nothing else a doctor or medicine can do for their condition. But others see euthanasia to be morally wrong. Suicide and Euthanasia have two very different meanings that reflect dying. Suicide is intentionally killing oneself because he or she does not want to continue on with life. Euthanasia can be definedRead MoreEuthanasi The Issue Of Legalizing Euthanasia1662 Words   |  7 PagesLegalization of Euthanasia Ata Dogan Student Sheridan College Abstract This paper examines how countries around the world have dealt with euthanasia as an upcoming issue. Looking into the stances, arguments and opinions surrounding the issue of legalizing Euthanasia. It goes into detail about why citizens are requesting legalization and also reviews who are the people specifically that chose to be euthanized. Furthermore, it discusses the negative stance and the positive outcomes of this issue over a person’sRead MoreEuthanasi The Controversial Issue Of Euthanasia1650 Words   |  7 PagesAdelaide students think about legalising voluntary euthanasia in Australia? Introduction The purpose of this research is to seeking and analysing the opinions about legalising voluntary euthanasia within Adelaide students (aged 18-25 years old). With recent changes to legalisation of child euthanasia in Belgium, the controversial issue of euthanasia is currently being re-spotlighted all over the world. Ongoing active discussion on the legalisation of euthanasia mainly debates individual’s choices in ending

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Doing The Best I Can Book Review - 2227 Words

Jeff Post Sociology 101 Section 001 Doing the Best I Can Book Review The book is about how unwed fathers are seen as a leading social problem, but goes on to explain the flaws that occur after pregnancy that lead to the end of the couple’s romance. The book looks at the bond between the father and child rather than that between the parents. The book also goes through how changes economically and culturally for the urban poor as well as the obstacles they must overcome has changed fatherhood. The introduction begins with quotes from people who mention that fathers get women pregnant and then leave the woman and the child; they mention that men need to realize their responsibilities do not end with conception. The book summarizes these quotes as unwed fatherhood is one of the leading social problems, and these men are irresponsible and â€Å"hit and run.† A CBS special report, The Vanishing Family, was an interview of McSeed, a father of six from four different women. In the interview, he says the responsibility of raising the child is on the mother, not him. About four in every ten children born in America in 2008 were born outside of marriage, and they are disproportionately minority and poor. â€Å"Only about 6 percent of college-educated mothers’ births are nonmarital versus 60 percent of those of high school dropouts† (5). Scholars responded to this by studying single-parent families. The authors of the book went beyond the stereotypes to document the experiences of â€Å"110Show MoreRelatedAnalysis Of The Mountain Post Historical Post Association721 Words   |  3 Pages In this paper I am going to discuss the non-profit organization The Mountain Post Historical Post Association (MPHA) and compare their reports to the one’s from my text book; Alliance for Nonprofit Management in Exhibit 7.12. I will identify which reports are in use and compare them to what is listed in the text book. I will also explain how effective these reports are for the organization. Let’s start by reviewing the monthly reports that the MPHA board has during the board meetings. Once a monthRead MoreWhat Are Qualities Of A Good Person?948 Words   |  4 PagesDescription of Text Set The following books is a collection intended for a kindergarten through first grade setting. The collection includes problems that each main character needs to resolve through their good qualities. For this text set my question I would like to include in my class room is; â€Å"What are qualities of a good person?† I believe that this set of books will help students gain qualities to better themselves. This text set will allow young students to see positive role models and whatRead MoreTruman Capote is Famous for His Novels, Stories and Screenplays816 Words   |  3 Pagesjob writing in the New Yorker magazine. 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And the pre-face when Lloyd Garrison describe his first encounter with Fredrick Douglas at and it is labor convention in and TackettRead MoreFor this assignment I read the book reviews Limits of Endurance ‘Defiant,’ by Alvin Townley; He700 Words   |  3 PagesFor this assignment I read the book reviews Limits of Endurance ‘Defiant,’ by Alvin Townley; He Accused ‘An Officer and a Spy,’ by Robert Harris; Breaking In ‘The Burglary,’ by Betty Medsger. For the book review Limits of Endurance ‘Defiant,’ by Alvin Townley the reviewer seem to have thought fondly of this book while writing majority positive things about this novel. The review He Accused which went over the novel Ã¢â‚¬Ë œAn Officer and a Spy,’ by Robert Harris seemed to be majority mixed to the pointRead MoreThe Groundswell By Charlene Li And Josh Bernoff898 Words   |  4 Pagesâ€Å"Groundswell† book by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff is an excellent novel that brings upon on the struggle to connect the power of social technologies. Li is an independent thought individual who is one of the leading voices of the business use of social media technologies and she is the founder of Altimeter Group Bernoff is the vice president at Forrester Research. The context of this book gives reader a comprehensive idea of how our world is being converted by social technologies and how we can take advantageRead MoreHow to Compete on Analytics Essay1100 Words   |  5 PagesBy  Alison  Bolen  Ã‚      Thomas  Davenports  article  Competing  on  Analytics  was  the  best†selling  Harvard   Business  Review  reprint  in  2006.  To  write  it,  Davenport,T he  Presidents  Distinguished   Professor  in  Management  and  Information  Technology  at  Babson  College,  studied  the   characteristics  of  more  than  50  leading  organizations  that  have  made  a  commitment  to   quantitative,  fact†based  analysis.      Why  is  the  January  2006  Harvard  Business  Review  article  so  popular?  We  recently  asked   the  author  and  educator  that  Read MoreEssay on Defence of Duffers Drift Book Report903 Words   |  4 PagesDEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY B COMPANY, 442nd SIGNAL BATTALION FORT GORDON, GEORGIA 30905 ATZH-LCB-B 17 Feb 12 MEMORANDUM FOR TECHNICAL DIRECTOR, WOBC SUBJECT: Book Review on The Defence of Duffers Drift by Ernest Swinton 1. The Defence of Duffers Drift was written by British Major General Ernest Swinton. Swinton’s main focus was to portray a series of events or battles he commanded during the South African War, occurring from 1899-1902. As a brandRead MoreHow This Critter Crits Essay1678 Words   |  7 PagesI think it was the second day after posting How This Critter Crits I received a particularly glowing response. I had already answered probably twenty of them—mostly favorable ones, with a few being, well, less than sterling. Anyway, I scrolled down her crit to the response box, and after thanking her for her kindness, I told her how—owing to what she and others had voiced—I literally quaked in my figurative boots. I told her Im like the rookie ball player who listens to, and then internalizesRead MoreFor This Book Review, I Chose To Read â€Å"The New Teacher1489 Words   |  6 PagesFor this book review, I chose to read â€Å"The New Teacher Book,† which was edited by Terry Burant, Linda Christensen, Kelley Dawson Salas, and Stephanie Walters. When I was searching for a book to complete this book review, I was looking for something that was geared towards someone like myself who is new to teaching in the educational spectrum. I wanted a book that was going to share background information and knowledge that other new teachers had felt when they first stepped into their own classroom

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Describing Myself Essay Example For Students

Describing Myself Essay â€Å"Life isnt about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. † George Bernard Shaw This quote by George Bernard Shaw, seems enough to define personality of any human being, it is the person himself who is responsible of creating his own personality, though environment around him does matter to some extent but majorly it is his attitude that brings out the real person in him. From the very start I should say that it is not an easy thing to speak about myself as it is hard to have a look at yourself from aside, but at the same time who knows you better than you yourself. Talking about me, my name is Albert. I’m closing to about 19 now. Starting with the studies, I was an average student in my primary classes. Honestly speaking scolding and punishment was almost a part of my everyday life. But after reaching class 8th, everything just flipped; I became more responsible and started taking my studies seriously. God knows why a sudden change. Anyhow, I did my secondary education from crescent kids campus, scoring 88% marks while Punjab College was the institute from where I did my Fsc scoring 80% marks. Focusing on the present, there is a lot to describe. Starting with my activities except studies, I really have a strong attraction towards movies. The movies that fascinate me are more of action, science fiction, and horror and crime type. Some of my favorite action movies include The Transporter, The Fast and Furious, The Conjuring, Transformers, and many more. Besides this, romantic movies also find some space in my movies collection. The best romantic movie Ive watched is The Notebook. Apart from movies I also indulge myself in sports activities like cricket and soccer. My character is difficult to describe. One can say that I have a very complex nature. When it comes to enjoying, I make sure I really feel and enjoy that moment. Hanging out with friends, teasing someone on a subject over and over again, taking someone’s belonging and not giving him back till he begs me for it, this may look childish but I really enjoy doing these small jokes. Caring for people has always been my desire. Whenever I see someone, who I think need care or help; I am always willing to help them. Moving forward to my demerits, one of them is that I get angry within seconds, especially if someone asks too many questions. It is very difficult for me to stay cool in tough situations. Along with this Im also a bit shy towards making new friends, and last but not the least the worst demerit that also irritates me a lot is that in classes or lectures I mostly sit mum, this has bothered me since my school life. So this is me. This essay is not just a matter of words, but yet my life. Who knew my life could be filled in such little space, however this is only just a part of me. These are some of the many things about me and facts about me from my personal point of view.

Saturday, April 11, 2020

3 Ways to Add Personalized Pop-Ups to WordPress and Boost Stickiness

There are many useful types of pop-ups that you can add to your website. However, there is one variety that stands out above the rest. If you really want to optimize your sites effectiveness, youll want to consider using personalized pop-ups.While most pop-ups treat every visitor to your site the same way, personalized pop-ups only appear to the groups of people you designate. This means you can target particular types of visitors with special messages, offers, and a specific Call To Action (CTA). After all, treating your audience members like individuals is a smart way to keep them coming back.In this post, well talk a little more about what personalized pop-ups are and why theyre useful. Then well show you a few ways you can use them to improve your sites stickiness (in other words, how well it retains visitors). Lets get started! You can use personalized pop-ups to show certain messages only to first-time visitors.Most website pop-ups display the same message to every visitor. In some cases, this might be all you need. However, using personalized pop-ups (often called targeted pop-ups) can have a much stronger and more memorable impact.Of course, we dont mean that each individual visitor will see a pop-up tailored specifically to them. While an excellent idea in theory, thats clearly impractical. Instead, were talking about pop-ups that are targeted at specific types of users, and only appear when certain criteria have been met.For example, you might have a pop-up display only to visitors who are not logged into an account on your site, encouraging them to sign up for a membership:Alternately, you could use a personalized pop-up to show a special offer to referral traffic that originates from a specific blog. In these kinds of scenarios, youre able to target the user with the exact information you want them to have. For this reason, using personalized pop-ups is a smart technique for increasing your websites stickiness. In other words, it can encourage peopl e to stay on your site longer and improve the chance that they will return.How personalized pop-ups help your sites Stickiness (3 examples)Now that you understand how personalized pop-ups work, lets look at how to put this strategy into action. Here are just three examples of what you can accomplish using this technique.1. You can target visitors based on whether theyre logged inIf your website lets users register, youll have two main types of visitors – those who are logged in and those who arent. These groups will often benefit from different types of messaging.Logged-out users are good targets for more traditional marketing that gets them interested in what youre offering. You may also want to encourage them to create an account or sign up for a membership. Logged-in users, on the other hand, have already demonstrated their interest in your site. Theyll want to know about the newest content, offers, and/or products.To create personalized pop-ups for these categories of use rs, you can use the premium version of the Popup Builder plugin. Once youve installed it, youll need to navigate to Popup Builder → Add New in your WordPress dashboard:Choose what type of pop-up youd like to create, and look for the option Show popup by user status. There, you can decide what types of users will be able to see the message. After that, you can finish customizing your pop-up and save it.2. Youll be able to display different messages depending on the users deviceMobile usage is rising, but there are still plenty of people who will visit your site using traditional desktops. With all aspects of your sites design, youll want to account for the various types of devices that visitors will use to access it.When it comes to pop-ups, this can mean designing alternate messages for mobile and desktop browsers. For example, you may want to design mobile pop-ups differently, with larger text and fewer distracting elements. You can also prompt mobile users to download a par ticular app or point them towards a sign-up form or contact page. Given Googles recent introduction of penalties relating to mobile pop-ups, you may also want to make sure the guidelines are adhered to regardless of the device.The Popups plugin provides a handy feature to help you personalize pop-ups based on device. After installing it, go to the Popups tab and click on Add New. Scroll down the page until you find the PopUp Display Rules section:In the drop-down menu labeled Show this popup if, youll find the options Mobile Phone, Tablet, and Desktop. Choosing one of these will ensure that the pop-up only appears for users on that type of device. You can even use the +AND button to add additional rules, so your pop-up could display on two kinds of devices but not the third.3. You can present special offers to traffic from specific sourcesFinally, many sites track where their traffic is coming from, in order to understand what referrals or marketing efforts bring in the most visitor s. This information can also help you target your pop-ups more effectively since you can present messages to users based on which sites theyre coming from.Lets say you own an online store, and youre getting a lot of visitors from a link on a popular weight-loss blog. You could create a pop-up that would show those people a special offer on nutritional supplements, or something else related to their specific interests. This small effort can do wonders for encouraging new visitors to stick around.The Popup Maker Advanced Targeting Conditions extension provides a customizable way to do this. Youll just need to install the plugin and go to Popup Maker → Add Popup. In the Conditions sections drop-down menu, youll find several options related to where traffic is coming from:For example, you can select Referral URL Is, and enter a specific link. You can also enter only part of the URL (so you can target an entire site instead of just a particular page), or even choose a specific sea rch engine. These options enable you to decide exactly what kinds of people will see this pop-up – which means youll already know why theyre visiting and how to help them.ConclusionPeople enjoy being treated like individuals – and this extends to your websites visitors. If you use your pop-ups to offer messages based on who the visitors are and where theyve arrived from, youre likely to get a better response than if you simply show the same stock offer to everyone.There are a lot of ways to use personalized pop-ups to improve your websites stickiness. Wed suggest getting started with these three techniques:Target users based on whether theyre logged in.Display different messages depending on the users device.Present special offers to traffic from specific sources.Do you have any questions about how to use personalized pop-ups effectively? Leave us a message in the comments section below! 3 different ways to use personalized #popups on your #WordPress site

Tuesday, March 10, 2020

Essay Sample on Wild Birds and Feeding Them

Essay Sample on Wild Birds and Feeding Them Feeding or watching of backyard birds or wild birds is popularly known as birding. It is one of the popular outdoor activities of people all around the world. Parks, farms and other peaceful areas have become popular habitat of these wild birds everywhere. Growing watching and feeding these feathered friends helps children as well as others to explore the fascinating features of nature at their doorstep itself. Bird lovers try to attract variety of wild birds to the courtyards by offering quality feeding stuff in their premises. The kind of food offered and the hygiene of the bird feeder are crucial factors in the matter of attracting and keeping wild birds. The variety and number of birds visiting the campus also depends upon the duration, attention and consistency given shown by the bird watchers to their colorful guests. Watching, identifying and classifying of wild birds visiting the backyard oasis will help learn about wild birds since they are popularly grouped on the basis of physical specialties like size, feather color, beak shape and so on. Feeding the wild birds throughout the year will help attract strange varieties of migrating wild birds that belong to lands of extreme climates. Maintaining small insects and bugs in the garden will help those wild guests stay in the garden since they love to have spiders, mosquitoes, worms and ants. Another important thing which makes wild birds stay around a place is the availability of fresh water in every season without any break. However interesting wild bird varieties like humming birds can be attracted to the habitat by offering nectar, red geraniums, coral bells and similar stuff. Providing a shallow ‘birdbath’ will really thrill the chirping guests since it will provide them a relief in the hot weather. Trees, shrubs or similar vegetation and an artificial setup of small waterfall producing a dripping sound will present a heaven to those friendly guests. Offering a calm, noiseless cool habitation will make those little ones stay anywhere since safety and food to gether defines their life.

Sunday, February 23, 2020

Poverty and the Development of Adolescence Research Paper

Poverty and the Development of Adolescence - Research Paper Example The current study examines the previous research studies on four domains of adolescence development namely, physical, cognitive, social and emotional with special emphasis on household poverty. The specific objectives of the current study are to identify the concepts which are useful for measuring poverty and adolescent development and their association to investigate the impact of poverty on four domains of adolescent development. The paper is organized as follows. The first chapter presents the models, indicators and statistical concepts useful for measuring the household poverty level, adolescence development processes and the factors which influence the adolescence development. Second chapter on literature review describes the physical, cognitive, social and emotional development of the adolescents in poor families by reviewing the literature. Finally the conclusions are drawn relevant to adolescent development and poverty. Concepts The distinguished physical developmental charac teristics such as development of breasts for girls and the deepened voices and broadened shoulders for boys are probably the most prominent characteristics of the adolescent development. ... In the proceeding chapter, these domains are discussed in detail with reference to relevant research literature. Literature Review Physical Development The lower socio economic status in the family can result in impaired development and poorer health of children and increased mortality and morbidity of adults (Emerson et al., 2005). Purchasing power of the poor families is low. Limited access to foods and nutrients is a common problem faced by the third world countries. It is also well established that social support and health beliefs play an important role in physical activity level of the adolescence. These have been recorded as inadequate even among the poor youth in the USA (Debbie et al. 2008). In the US more than 25 percentage proportion of the adolescents are also overweight. More than 11 percentage proportion of the adolescents are obese which cause long term physical and mental health consequences in individuals. Wickrama et al. 2006, revealed that poverty, single parenthoo d and most of the racial minority statuses (African American, Hispanic American, and Native American racial/ethnic groups) are positively associated with obesity and overweight among adolescents in the USA. Asian American status however was found negatively correlated with these health problems. Emerson et al. 2005, used the statistics of National Statistics survey of the mental health of children and adolescents in Great Britain to study the health status of the adolescents and household income. Sample consisted of 10,438 children between the ages of 5 and 15. In the above study the physical development of the adolescents were measured in terms of nine categories namely, current

Thursday, February 6, 2020

Abrasive Consultant Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Abrasive Consultant - Essay Example Peter Drucker was of the opinion that â€Å"We know nothing about motivation. All we can do is write books about it.† (Spillane and Martin, 2005, pg. 46). Although Drucker had a rather hopeless view on the subject, from a psychological perspective it is possible to conjecture about an individual’s agendas. To consider the possible reasons for Julia’s behavior, we must first analyze her personality type. An abrasive personality is one that annoys others and causes hostility as a result. The dictionary meaning also lists synonyms that include ‘overly aggressive’. Abrasive behavior that is erratic, resulting in heightened conflict, the blame game, ambiguity, overt contempt, and defensiveness is typically seen as an outward symptom of hidden feelings of inadequacy and fear. In addition, there is a self-generated environment which, according to theorists, is another complex layer in the relationship between human behavior and environment. The concept post ulates a particular type of behavior produces conditions that affect future behavior. For instance, individuals who have abrasive personalities, contribute to the creation of a social environment that is hostile, leading to further aggression from them. This is a self-perpetuating cycle sustained by the aggressive individual. Granted the state of a parent’s health can be an emotional issue, but Julia could easily have made a few calls herself to verify her mother’s health. This lapse and her subsequent rant at Cathy at the office indicate a tendency toward manipulative behavior, either conscious or subconscious. Cathy’s feelings of guilt are a direct result of her being emotionally blackmailed by Julia into feeling guilty. This manipulation results in a role reversal, where Julia, who in actuality has a subordinate position, assumes a dominant role, forcing Cathy into a subservient one. Indeed, Julia may derive a secret pleasure from this short-lived but repeate d forced reversal and dominance. It also results in the vital issue of client dissatisfaction not being addressed, again, due to the manipulative tactics Julia may have adopted to avoid being warned.

Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Lacan, Foucault, Sedgwick, Binary Essay Example for Free

Lacan, Foucault, Sedgwick, Binary Essay The world consists of a collection of dual concepts. Things either are or they are not, especially at the level of conception. One is either alive or dead; there are no in-betweens with this notion. In the essay, The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the I as revealed in Psychoanalytical Experience, Jacques Lacan describes a certain binary that takes place, and interacts, within a child as soon as they learn to recognize their own image. Lacans recognition of this initial dualism that takes place in an infant, leads to the recognition of several other dualisms. Michel Foucault speaks of a binary when speaking of sex and sexuality in chapter one of The History of Sexuality, Volume 1, an Introduction. In the second Axiom from Epistemology of the Closet, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick discusses the heterosexual and homosexual dichotomy. Lacan believes that after eighteen months, a child discovers its libidinal dynamism (1286). Libidinal means psychic and emotional energy associated with instinctual biological drives. Dynamism means active and interactive movement. Through action and interaction with its psychic and emotional energy, instinctual biological drives in a childs mind. It is through this dual and cooperative interaction between the physical and metaphysical, in the mirror, that a child begins to form identification with itself and its reflection. Via this reflection, the child will see its body as Gesalt, a collection of parts of the whole (Lacan 1286). The child views the sum of its biological, physical, and psychological bodies as an entire unit; being made up of several different parts, and at the same time just a singular object. The child recognizes and views its reflection in relation to its surroundings, i. e. urniture, itself, its mother, yet this realization that unites the childs parts to form a singular I. This mental permanence, meaning the child will permanently see itself as I, is what will alienate others due its large singular view of itself, and not a view as part of a whole. With the childs actualization of its image and that it can be seen and interpreted, it shall then recognize a binary of physical reality and dream reality. The dream realm is a reality of sorts, in the sense that it is real because it is experienced. That dream realm is then filled with not nly the childs own image, but the image of the physical world it inhabits while awake. This I image is thus residing in the spectrums of this binary where its realities exist both in the physical world and in the mental world. The mirror stage itself is an entire dualistic concept. On one hand, it marks the initial conception of self-actualization, while on the other, maps the libidinal normalization process. Foucault outlines the history of sex in terms of children, how they communicate it, who discusses it, and where it resides in the binary. Children have for many years had a freedom of language with their mentors in relation to sex (Foucault 1654). This is to say that there was less shame in the attitude towards sex. It was a very openly discussed topic outside the realm of perversion and deviance. It was not until the seventeenth century that the French bourgeoisie placed a censorship on all speech that was of sexual manner. Children, across all social classes, gradually became more silent in regards to their sexuality (Foucault 1654). This notion of silence is where duality comes into to play, or lack thereof. Foucault defines silence as the things one declines to say, or is forbidden to name, the discretion that is required between different speakers, (1654). Foucault views silence as a non-passive action, even if it may appear to be doing nothing. One can convey a message just as effectively, and arguably more, by remaining silent than actually speaking. Silence is something that functions alongside speech in such a way that it becomes difficult to differentiate the two in terms of the outcomes they produce. Foucault acknowledges this lack of binary by stating that there is no division to be made between what one says and what one does not say (1654). In terms of the government enforced censorship on sexuality and speech during the 1600s, this silence surrounding sexuality spoke volumes more than explicit dialogue about it. During this time another binary became prevalent, the public and the private. While the people remained relatively silent in public, they were conversing greatly privately. In the 1700s this silence multiplied the forms of discourse on the subject of sex (Foucault 1655). The topic of children sex exploded with many participants partaking in the discussion. There was a great market for this discourse on sex that included the realms of medicine and politics, often interweaving the two. The topic of sex was forced out of the private realm into the public. Foucault says that sex has become something society cannot speak enough about, that [society] convinced [itself] that [they] have never said enough on the subject, throwing society onto a perpetual search for answers (1657). The sexual realm does not reside in the binary of public and private, of being secret or outspoken, yet resides in both. It is because of this need for secrecy that sex has taken such a firm place outside of being a secret. Foucault says society teeters on the middle of the binary system of public and private, that society has consigned sex to a shadow existence, but that they dedicated themselves to speaking of it ad infinitum, while exploiting it as the secret (1658). The history of sex is a prime example of a concept being able to reside in the realms of the public and private binaries, and at the same time residing in neither. Sedgwick claims that sexuality lies in a realm separate than that of gender. She defines chromosomal sex as that of biology that follows the strict XX and XY chromosome pattern of distinction among Homo Sapiens (Sedgwick 2439). She defines gender as an elaborate and rigid social production that strictly serves the binary of only male and female (Sedgwick 2439). She then defines sexuality as an array of acts, expectations, narratives, pleasures, identity-formations, and knowledge, in both women and men that focus on genital sensations, but not adequately defined by them (Sedgwick 2440). She states that gender is only one dimension of sexual choice and that sexuality strictly deals with how the individual feels and has no relation to, or effect on, procreation. Whereas chromosomal sex is strictly based on procreative purposes since it lies in the realm of biology, where a sexed male and a sexed female are the only sexes that can reproduce with each other. This notion thus makes sexuality the polar opposite of chromosomal sex, rather than gender being its opposite, in the binaries. She states that both gender and sexuality are concepts to be chosen. The differences between them are that gender serves the binary of male and female, while sexuality, contingent on the individual, are not limited by such a simple binary. This binaries construction was only to serve the male identity. Sedgwick says that any system with gender at its focus will have an inherent heterosexist bias, meaning that the female gender is constructed as a supplement to the male identity (2442). That the binary by which gender is trapped only exists because it required being a binary, the female gender only exists because the male gender required a counterpart. The binary of heterosexual and homosexual fits a deconstructive template more so than the binary of male and female, thus rendering sexual orientation and gender different. All people at birth are publicly assigned to one of two genders and because of this are forever unalterable. Sexual orientation, on the other hand, is often times rearrangeable, ambiguous, and has a doubleness quality to it that allows for easy alterations (Sedgwick 2444). Sedgwick does not find the gender binary to be one of complexity, but of a rather simple and unchallengeable one. She states the essentialism of sexual orientation is less easy to maintain, incoherent, stressed and challenged (Sedgwick 2444). There is a contradictoriness to Sedgwicks claim that sexual orientation is easy to alter and rearrangeable, yet at the same time less easy to maintain. It is, however, this seemingly contradictoriness that makes sexual orientation different from the gender binary. It is this complexity and fluidity that gives sexual orientation its ability to make leaps and bounds across its multinary systems. The most important aspect of the difference between gender and sexual orientation is the fact that one can choose their sexuality, but not their gender. Lacan, Foucault, and Sedgwick all deal with historical values. That is to say, they deal with issues and topics that occur at the early stages of young life, thus making these dealings at the conception level of thought. Lacans mirror stage describes a childs actualization of self. Foucault deals with the history of sex and the history of childrens conception of sex. Sedgwick discusses the differences of sex, sexuality, and gender. The uniqueness of Sedgwicks notion is that gender is assigned at birth and can never be altered. This ties into Lacans mirror stage where once a child realizes its image, and the placement of that image in the world it lives in, it can never un-see that image, and moreover, can never remove that image from its surroundings. Foucault greatly discusses children in his chapter, however he does not delve deeper as to what about children relate to their sex. Sedgwick supplies contextual substance to Foucaults article that deals mainly with the history of sex and not the sex itself. Lacans concept of self-actualization of the I, can be coupled with Sedgwicks gender assignment at birth, that the I is gendered, and will effect, and often dictate, the childs asymptomatic journey to reach it. Lacans concept of the binary of physical and metaphysical realization of self-image, is the basis for a binary discussion, something either is or is not physically here. Foucault discusses the history of sex and how a binary of speaking about sex or remaining silent does not exist. Sedgwick deals with the gender binary. This theory of dualism, binaries, dichotomy, lays foundation for these authors, and philosophers, and their works.

Monday, January 20, 2020

Nelle Harper Lee Essay -- Essays Papers

Nelle Harper Lee Miss. Nelle Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926, in Moroeville Alabama, where her father practiced as a lawyer and served as a state senator. She grew up as the youngest out of 4 children, and was the only one to pursue a literary career. She received her early education in public schools, and from 1945-1949 she attended University of Alabama, studying law. She moved to New York, without carrying out the requirements for her degree in law, and there worked as an airline reservation clerk. Shortly after, she left her clerk position to concentrate her efforts on her first novel. To Kill a Mockingbird went through various stages of revision, over a two and a half year period, before hitting the shelves in 1960. The book was an instant success, selling more than two and a half million copies in its first year. It was published in various countries overseas and was chosen by three well-known American book clubs. On May 1, 1961 Miss. Lee’s hard work and determination paid off tremendously. She was honoured to find out that she was the first woman since 1942 to have a fiction book awarded the Pulitzer Prize. (Very prestigious awards established by Joseph Pulitzer and conferred annually for accomplishment in various fields of American journalism, literature, and music.) Harper Lee is credited greatly for her ability to captivate the reader by presenting opinions, views of life and its common roadblocks, through eyes of a child. Scout, an intelli...

Sunday, January 12, 2020

Bite Me: A Love Story Chapter 3

3. The Samurai of Jackson Street TOMMY When he first arrived in San Francisco, Tommy Flood had shared a closet-size room with five Chinese men named Wong, all of whom had wanted to marry him. â€Å"It's horrible-like being packed into a take-out box of Kung Pao chicken,† Tommy had said, and although it wasn't like that at all, and Tommy was just trying to use colorful language which he felt was his duty as a writer, it was very crowded and smelled strongly of garlic and sweaty Chinese guys. â€Å"I think they want to pack my fudge,† Tommy had said. â€Å"I'm from Indiana, we don't go for that kind of stuff.† As it turned out, the Chinese guys didn't go for that kind of stuff either, but were, in fact, very much interested in getting green cards. Fortunately, only a week later, in the parking lot of the Marina Safeway where he worked nights, Tommy met a gorgeous redhead named Jody Stroud, who rescued him from his confinement with the Chinese guys, by giving him her love, a nice loft apartment, and immortality. Unfortunately, little more than a month after that, their minion, Abby, had them bronzed while they slept, and Tommy awoke one night to find that despite his great vampire strength, he couldn't move a muscle. â€Å"I'd rather be trapped in a take-out box of Kung Pao chicken,† Tommy would have said if he could have said anything, which he couldn't. Meanwhile, right next to him, sharing the same bronze shell, his beloved Jody drifted in a dream-state, a side effect of being able to turn herself to mist, a trick she had learned from Elijah Ben Sapir, her vampire sire. Between the dead sleep of daylight, and the floating in a dream-world, she could endure decades inside the statue. Tommy, however, had never learned how to turn to mist. There had never been time to teach him. So come sundown, his vampire senses came on like neon, and he experienced every second of his confinement with an electric intensity that nearly had him vibrating in his shell-an alpha predator pacing the cage of his mind and shredding his reason. Of course, he did the only thing he could do: he went barking at the moon mad. CHET He'd have to lick about a mile of kitty-butt to get the taste of meter maid out of his mouth, but Chet was up for it. He raked a couple of hind-leg kicks through the dust that was the meter maid's remains, and headed across the street and into the alley, where he curled up in the dark and set about blunting the human taste. It was only a little over a month since the old vampire had turned Chet, but already he was losing all sense of his former self. Time was, that he spent his days on Market Street, napping next to William, the homeless man who made his living with a paper cup and a sign that said, I AM HOMELESS AND MY CAT IS HUGE. Chet was indeed very large, and while much of his volume had been fur, he had achieved a weight of thirty-five pounds on a diet of semi-used hamburgers and French fries donated by passersby outside of McDonald's. Now Chet hunted the night, taking down nearly any warm-blooded creature he encountered: rats, birds, squirrels, cats, dogs, and even the occasional human. At first it had only been drunks and other homeless, and the first time he had drained one, his old friend William, who turned to dust in front of him, Chet yowled, ran, and hid under a Dumpster for the rest of the night and all of the next day. There was no regret, simply hunger and elation of the blood rush. It was beyond the satisfaction of the kill, it was positively sexual, something Chet had never known as a normal cat, as he'd been neutered by the animal shelter when still a kitten. But along with speed, strength, and senses far more sensitive than even a human-based vampire, Chet, like his human counterparts, found that he was physically restored to perfection. In other words, his junk was working. He found that soon after the kill he desperately needed to hump something, and the more squirmy and wailing, the better. Above the smells of bus fumes, cooking food, and urine-bathed curbs that pervaded the City, he caught the scent of a female in heat. She might be a mile away, but given his newly heightened senses, he'd find her. A wave of excitement undulated under the fur of his spine, fur that had mostly grown back since the humans had shaved him, mated in front of him, and drank his blood, which served to traumatize his little kitty consciousness before he was turned vampire, and motivated a whole new feeling he'd grown into as a vampire cat: vengeance. For since his metamorphosis, it wasn't just his senses that had expanded. His brain, which before had run a loop of â€Å"eat-nap-crap, repeat,† was now growing into a whole new awareness, getting bigger, even as Chet grew. He was a good sixty pounds now, and roughly as smart as a dog, where before he'd only been a little brighter than a brick. Dog. The hated. There was dog on the air. Coming closer. He could smell it-them-two of them. And now he could hear them. He arose from his butt bath and screeched like an electrified lynx. In response, the neighborhood echoed with a chorus of yowls from a dozen other vampire cats. THE EMPEROR â€Å"Steady, fellows,† said the Emperor. He laid his hand across the neck of the golden retriever and scratched under the chin of the Boston terrier, who squirmed in the great pocket of the Emperor's overcoat, looking like a frantic, black-and-white, bug-eyed kangaroo mutant. â€Å"Cat! Cat! Cat! Cat! Cat!† barked Bummer, with a spray of doggie slobber across the Emperor's palm. â€Å"Cat! Murder, pain, fire, evil, cat! Can't you smell them? Everywhere! Must chase, chase, chase, bite, bite, bite, let me go you insane, oblivious old man, I'm trying to save you, for the love of God, CAT! CAT! CAT!† Unfortunately, Bummer only spoke dog, and while the Emperor could tell that the Boston terrier was upset, he had no idea why. (Anyone who translates dog knows that only about a third of what Bummer said actually meant anything. The rest was just noise he needed to make. Human speech is about the same.) Lazarus, the golden retriever, having battled vampires on and off for the last two months, and being steady by nature, was much calmer about the whole thing, but despite Bummer's tendency to overreact, he had to admit, the smell of cat was tall in the air, and what was more disturbing, it wasn't just cat, it was dead cat. Dead cat walking. Wait, what was that? Not cat-cats. Oh, this was not good. â€Å"He's right about the cat,† Lazarus ruffed, nudging the Emperor's leg. â€Å"We should get out of this neighborhood, maybe go over to North Beach and see if anyone dropped a beef jerky or something. I could sure use a beef jerky. Or we can stay and die. Whatever. I'm good with it.† â€Å"Easy, men,† said the Emperor, alert now that something was amiss. He knelt down, his knees creaking like rusted hinges, and as he looked around, kneaded the spot between Bummer's ears as if he were readying to make doggy-brain biscuits. He was a great, woolly, thunderstorm of a man-broad shouldered and gray bearded, fine witted and fiercely loyal to the people of his city. He had lived on the streets of San Francisco as long as anyone could remember, and while tourists saw him as a raggedy, homeless wretch, the locals viewed him as a fixture, a rolling landmark, a spirit, and a conscience, and for the most part, treated him with the deference they might pay royalty, despite the fact that he was a raving loon. The street was deserted, but a half a block away the Emperor saw the three-wheeled cart of an S.F.P.D. parking enforcement officer, stopped behind an illegally parked Audi. The cart's rotating yellow caution lights chased themselves around the surrounding buildings like drunken, jaundiced Tinkerbells, but there was no officer in sight. â€Å"Strange. It's long past time when a meter maid should be working. Perhaps we should investigate, gents.† But before he could stand, Bummer leapt out of the Emperor's pocket and made a beeline for the cart, trumpeting himself into the charge with a staccato barking fit. Lazarus took off after the black-and-white fur-rocket, and the old man ambled along behind, as fast as his great, arthritic legs would carry him. They found Bummer on the far side of the Audi, snorting and snuffling inside an empty police uniform, and covered with a fine gray powder. The Emperor's eyes went wide. He backed across the sidewalk and stood against the fire door of one of the industrial lofts that lined the street. He had seen this before. He knew the signs. But when he had seen the old vampire and his companions board an enormous yacht in the Bay over a month ago, he thought his city rid of the bloodsucking fiends. What now? There was a crackling static noise from the police cart: a radio. Call it in. Alert his people to the danger. He rolled to the cart, fumbled with the door catch, and reached for the microphone. â€Å"Hello,† he said into the microphone. â€Å"This is the Emperor of San Francisco, Emperor of San Francisco, protector of Alcatraz, Sausalito, and Treasure Island, and I'd like to report a vampire.† The radio continued to crackle and distant voices ghosted through the ether, uninterrupted. Lazarus padded to the old man's side and barked furiously, â€Å"You have to push the button. You have to push the button.† Unfortunately, while the noble retriever understood English, he only spoke dog, and the Emperor did not get the instruction. â€Å"Button! Button! Button! Button!† Bummer barked, springing up and down in front of the police cart. He scurried around to the door and jumped in on the Emperor's lap to show him. â€Å"Yeah, that helps,† growled Lazarus sarcastically. Golden retrievers are not a very sarcastic breed, and he felt a little ashamed and, well, catlike, using that tone of voice. â€Å"Okay. Button! Button! Button! Uh-oh.† â€Å"Button! Button! Button! Uh-oh, what?† barked Bummer. A short ruff from the retriever: â€Å"Cat.† Lazarus boiled out a low growl and laid his ears back against his head. The Emperor saw two of them: cats, coming down the sidewalk toward them. But they didn't look quite natural. The light from the police cart was reflecting back from the cats' eyes like red coals. A screech, there were two more coming across the street. Lazarus turned to face them, snarling now. A chorus of hisses from behind. The Emperor looked in the rearview mirror to see three more cats stalking from behind. â€Å"Quick, Lazarus, in the cart. Up, boy, in the cart.† Lazarus was spinning now, trying to watch all of the cats at once, warning them off with bared teeth and bristled hair. But the cats came on, baring their own teeth. â€Å"Come now,† said the Emperor into the microphone. Something landed hard on the roof of the cart and Bummer yelped. Another thump and the Emperor looked back to see a large cat in the bed of the cart, coming up on two legs and trying to claw around the back window. The old man pulled the door shut. â€Å"Run, Lazarus, run!† Lazarus caught the first cat in his jaws and was shaking it furiously when the rest fell upon him. STEVE â€Å"There's nefarious shit afoot, Foo,† said Abby. â€Å"Bring portable sun and fry these nosferatu kitties before they nom everyone in the ‘hood.† Steven â€Å"Foo Dog† Wong had no idea what his girlfriend, Abby, was talking about, and it wasn't the first time. In fact, much of the time he had no idea what she was talking about, but he had learned if he was patient, and listened, and more important, agreed with her, she would mercilessly sex him up, which he liked quite a bit, and occasionally he got the message. He used the same strategy with his maternal grandmother (without the sexing-up part), who spoke an obscure, country dialect of Cantonese, that sounded to the uninitiated like someone beating a chicken to death with a banjo. Just wait, and all would become clear. This time, however, Abby, whose tone ran from tragically romantic to passionately dismissive, was sounding much more urgent, and the patience gambit wasn't going to work. Her voice in his Bluetooth headset was like having a malevolent fairy bite his ear. â€Å"I'm in the middle of something, Abby. I'll be home as soon as I finish up here.† â€Å"Now, Foo. There's a herd, or flock, or a-what do you call a bunch of kitties?† â€Å"A box?† Foo offered. â€Å"Fucktard!† â€Å"A fucktard of kitties? Okay, sure, that could be it. A pride of lions, a murder of crows†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"No. You fucktard! There's a bunch of vampire kitties about to eat that crazy Emperor guy and his dogs right outside on the street. You need to come save them.† â€Å"A bunch?† Steve was having a hard time getting his head around the idea. He'd only recently gotten his head around the idea of one vampire cat, but a bunch, well, that was more. He was just a couple of months away from having his master's in biochem at age twenty-one-he wasn't a fucktard. â€Å"Define a bunch,† he said. â€Å"Many. I can't count them because they're stalking the golden retriever.† â€Å"And how do you know they're vampire kitties?† â€Å"Oh, because I drew blood samples from them, ran it in that centrifuge thingy of yours, prepared some slides, and looked at the blood cell structure under a microscope, duh?† â€Å"No, really,† he said. She was flunking high school biology, there's no way she prepared blood slides. And besides- â€Å"Of course not, you douche nozzle, I know they're vampires because they're stalking a golden retriever and a homeless fuck who's hiding in the vaporized meter maid's cart. That's not standard kitty behavior.† â€Å"Vaporized meter maid?† â€Å"The one Chet ate-sucked her to dust. Come now, Foo, turn your sunbeam full-on and get your luscious ninja ass over here.† Steve had rigged the hatchback of his tricked-out Honda Civic with high intensity UV floodlights, which he'd used to flash fry a number of vampires, thus saving Abby and, for the first time in his life, having a girlfriend and someone who thought he was cool. â€Å"I can't come right away, Abby. The sun lights aren't in the car.† â€Å"Oh my fucking God, there's some little old guy with a cane coming out of the alley. Well, he's toast. Fuck!† â€Å"What?† â€Å"Fuck!† â€Å"What?† â€Å"Oh fuck!† â€Å"What? What? What?† â€Å"Oh-my-fucking-god-ponies-on-a-stick!† â€Å"Abby, you need to be more specific.† â€Å"It's not a cane, Foo, it's a sword.† â€Å"What?† â€Å"Come now, Foo. Bring the sun.† â€Å"I can't, Abby. My car is full of rats.† THE EMPEROR The Emperor watched in horror as the cats leapt onto the back of his noble captain, Lazarus. The golden retriever shook himself violently, dislodging two of the fiends, but they were replaced by two more, and three more leapt on top of them, nearly bringing Lazarus to the ground. But they weren't pack hunters, and as each maneuvered for the throat, another attacker was pushed off, his claws shredding both predator and prey as he fell. Blood splattered the windscreen of the police cart. Bummer bounced around inside the tiny cabin, barking and snorting, and throwing himself against the glass, covering everything with angry dog slobber. â€Å"Run, Lazarus, run!† The Emperor pounded on the glass, then pushed his forehead against it as he tried to squint back tears of anguish and frustration. â€Å"No!† He would not do it. He would not watch his companion slaughtered. Outrage filled the ancient, boiler-tank of a man and condensed to courage. He was fighting the door latch when half a cat hit the side window and slid down trailing gore. The door handle snapped off in his hand and he threw it to the floor of the cart. Bummer immediately attacked it and broke a tooth on the metal. Through the haze of blood spray, the Emperor could see another figure in the street. A boy-no, a man, but a small man, Asian-wearing a fluorescent orange porkpie hat and socks, tight plaid trousers that looked as if they'd been teleported out of the 1960s, and a gray cardigan sweater. The little man was brandishing a samurai sword, bringing it down again and again on Lazarus in quick snapping motions, but before he could cry out, the Emperor saw that the sword wasn't even grazing the retriever's coat. With each stroke one of the cats fell away, beheaded or cut in half, both halves squirming on the pavement. There was no spinning, no wind-up or flourish to the swordsman's movements, just grim efficiency, like a chef chopping vegetables. As his targets moved, he pivoted and stepped just enough to deliver the cut, then snapped the blade back and sent it to its next destination. The weight and fury removed from his back, Lazarus looked around and whimpered, which translated to: â€Å"Whaaa-?† The swordsman was relentless, step, cut, step, cut. Two cats came at him from under a Volvo and he quickly retreated and swung the sword in a quick, low arc that approximated a golf stroke and sent their heads back over the car to bounce off a metal garage door. â€Å"Behind!† the Emperor warned. But it was too late. The low attack had thrown the swordsman off-a heavy-bodied Siamese cat launched itself from the roof of a van across the street and landed on the little man's back. The long sword was useless at such close range. The swordsman arched in pain, even as the Siamese clawed its way up his back. He spun, then threw his feet out before him and fell hard on his back, but the Siamese took the impact and dug its fangs into the swordsman's shoulder. A half-dozen vampire cats came scurrying out from under cars toward the struggling swordsman. Lazarus, his fur matted with blood, caught one of the cats by the haunch and bit to the bone. The cat screamed and squirmed in the retriever's jaws, trying to claw his eyes. The others fell on the swordsman with fang and claw. The Emperor threw his shoulder against the Plexiglas door of the police cart, but there was no room to move, to gain momentum, and while the entire cart rocked and went up on two wheels under his weight, the door latch would not give. He watched in horror as the swordsman writhed under his attackers. The Emperor heard a steel fire door hitting brick and light spilled across the sidewalk and into the street. Out of the doorway ran a thin, impossibly pale girl with lavender pigtails wearing pink motocross boots, pink fishnet stockings, a green plastic skirt, wraparound sunglasses, and a black leather jacket that looked studded with glass. Before he could warn her, the girl ran into the street and shouted, â€Å"You motherfucking kitties need to step the fuck off!† The vampire cats attacking the swordsman looked up and hissed, which translated from vampire cat, meant: â€Å"Whaaa-?† She ran right at the swordsman, waving her arms as if shooing birds or trying to dry some particularly stubborn nail polish and screaming like a madwoman. The cats turned their attention to her, and were crouching, readying to leap, when her jacket lit up like the sun. There was a collective screech of agony from the vampire cats as all around the street, cats and cat parts smoked, then ignited. Burning cats made for the alley across the street or tried to hide under cars, but the thin girl ran after them, darting here and there, until each ignited, then burned and reduced itself first to a bubbling puddle of fur and goo, and finally, a pile of fine ash. In less than a minute, the street was quiet again. The lights on the girl's jacket went dark. The swordsman climbed to his feet and fitted his orange porkpie hat back on his head. He was bleeding from spots on his back and arms, and there was blood on his plaid pants and orange socks, but whether it was his or the cats' was impossible to tell. He stood before the thin girl and bowed deeply. â€Å"Domo arigato,† he said, keeping his eyes at her feet. â€Å"Dozo,† said the girl. â€Å"Your kitty-slaying skills are, if I may say so, the shit.† The swordsman bowed again, short and shallow, then turned and trotted across the street, down the alley, and out of sight. Lazarus was digging at the Plexiglas door of the police cart with the pads of his paws, as if he might polish his way through to release his master. Abby scratched his nose, nearly the only part of him not covered in blood, and opened the door. â€Å"Hey,† she said. â€Å"Hey,† said the Emperor. He stepped out of the cart and looked around. The street was painted with blood for half a block, punctuated by piles of ash and the occasional charred flea collar. Parked cars were sprayed in red mist, even the security lights above several fire doors were speckled with gore. Acrid smoke from burning cats hung low in the air, and on the sidewalk greasy gray ash spilled out of the sleeves and collar of the parking officer's uniform. â€Å"Well, you don't see that every day,† said the Emperor, as a police cruiser rounded the corner, the red and blue lights raking the building. The cruiser stopped and doors flew open. The driver stood behind his door, his hand on his gun. â€Å"What's going on here?† he said, trying to keep his eyes on the Emperor and not look at the carnage that surrounded them. â€Å"Nothing,† Abby said.