Understanding ADD and ADHD Essay -- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Di

Understanding ADD and ADHD First, it is important to understand ADD and ADHD and how they can be identified. Within the classroom, a teacher may encounter a student who constantly squirms in their seat, stares out the window, and has a desk that is a complete mess. These are not poor students who do not care about school and learning. Often these students may be undiagnosed cases of Attention Deficit Disorder or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. These students can often be disruptive to themselves and the students around them, which causes serious educational problems. For this reason it is important for these students to be identified and to have their condition treated. Also, if untreated for a long period of time, the student?s self esteem and feeling of competence may be severely damaged (D?Alonzo, 1996). Untreated cases of attention disorders can be spotted through certain symptoms. These symptoms include short attention span, daydreaming, low frustration tolerance, poor planning ability, disorganization, constantly displaying inappropriate behavior, and a multitude of others (Copeland & Love, 1992). If a teacher encounters a student in their classroom and feel that he or she may have an attention disorder, there are certain steps one should follow to initiate effective and appropriate treatment of the student. First, one should take time to organize a list of behaviors and problems of the student that cause concern. Next one should gather information about the student?s behavior by observing them. These observations should be recorded and kept for future reference. Then gather information on the student including previous test scores, medical reports, past teacher?s remarks, and so on. After this... ...ers and how to manage them in the classroom. Dowdy, C., Patton, J., Smith, T., & Polloway, E. (1998). Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in the classroom. Austin, Texas: PRO-ED, Inc. This book covers a multitude of areas addressing ADD and ADHD, including but not limited to managing the classroom, accommodating instructional needs, and student-regulated strategies. Slavin, R. (2000). Educational Psychology: theory and practice. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon. This book is an educational psychology textbook. I found a section on ADD and ADHD that provided information on the problems the child faces and it also addressed the role of the teacher with ADD or ADHD students. Online Medical Dictionary, (1998). Retrieved from the World Wide Web on September 20, 2014. This source is an online dictionary of medical terms and conditions.

Corporate Strategy Essay

Diversification is even more prominent in other parts of the world †¢ Grupos, chaebol, business houses, keiretsu, and so on – Poor corporate strategy is common â€Å"Excite, one of the leading Internet services companies, yesterday [received a] takeover offer from Zapata, a Texas-based group with holdings in marine protein and food packaging companies. Citing the â€Å"excellent fit with Zapata’s new strategic direction,† Avram Glazer, Zapata’s chief executive officer, said the proposed transaction â€Å"makes sense for Excite’s shareholders because of the capital resources that Zapata can bring to Excite. † Financial Times, May 22, 1998 2 What diversified corporation did this become? 3 Decomposition of Variance in Profitability: Evidence from the United States Year 2% Industry 18% Corporate parent 4% Transient 46% †¢ In the U. S. corporate strategy is typically the icing on the cake, not the cake itself – Business units must be competitive on their own merits – †¦in attractive industries †¢ But the icing can make the decisive difference between a good cake and a bad one Business segment 30% Note: Ignores covariance terms; based on 58,132 observations of 12,296 business segments in 628 industries in the United States Source: Anita M. McGahan and Michael E. Porter, â₠¬Å"How Much Does Industry Matter Really? † Strategic Management Journal, 1997 4 Decomposition of Variance in Profitability: Evidence from 14 Emerging Economies †¢ In much of the rest of the world, corporate strategy is more prominent †¢ Membership in a diversified entity has a larger effect on profitability †¢ The effect on profitability is more likely to be positive Source: Tarun Khanna and Jan W. Rivkin, â€Å"Estimating the Performance Effects of Business Groups in Emerging Markets,† Strategic Management Journal, 2000 Countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, India, Indonesia, Israel, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Turkey Litmus Test of Corporate Strategy †¢ Is the combination of all businesses of the firm worth more than the sum of how much each business is worth individually? – The answer could be less, e. g. J. C. Penney telemarketing division was worth 3X the market value of the entire firm †¢ When deciding whether or not to acquire another business, you need to decide BOTH – whether you have a competitive advantage running that business – AND how it will contribute to the fit among the other 6 businesses you are running Acrobat Document 7 The Walt Disney Company: Stock Price vs. S&P 500, 1984-1994 8 The Walt Disney Company: Stock Price vs. S&P 500, 1995-2005 9 Two big problems 1. Growth at all costs: †¢ This is an example of what happens when a solid corporate strategy meets an aggressive growth goal 2. Mismatch between strategy and organizational structure: †¢ You can have a corporation with businesses that are closely connected like the classic Disney businesses and then run the businesses together in a tightly integrated way. That can work. †¢ You can have a corporation with the broader scope of later Disney and run them in a loosely coupled way. That can work. †¢ But if you have a corporation with the broader scope of later Disney and run them like the classic Disney, with heavy-handed management from the top, searching for synergy that doesn’t really exist†¦then you get into trouble. – In 2005, ABC President Robert Iger replaces Eisner 10 The Walt Disney Company: Stock Price vs. S&P 500, 2005-2012 11 The Walt Disney Company: Take-aways Core lessons of corporate-level strategy †¢ Competition occurs at the level of the business unit †¢ Corporate strategy is a success or failure to the extent that it enhances business unit competitive advantage – Is the relative gap between WTP and cost larger than it would be otherwise? †¢ Two tests: – Better-off: Does the presence of the corporation in a given market improve the total competitive advantage of business units over and above what they could achieve on their own? (What’s the added value of the corporation? – Ownership: Does ownership of the business unit produce a greater competitive advantage than an alternative arrangement would produce? †¢ A corporation is more likely to pass the tests when it has some shared resource that (a) creates competitive advantage for the business units and (b) is difficult to trade efficiently via the market – E. g. , access to animated characters – Making business units â€Å"better off† sounds easy, but it typically requires sophisticated structures, systems, and processes, plus cultural supports 12 Corporate strategy entails trade-offs Either focus on†¦ or focus on†¦ Guidance on the Projects Overall Grading †¢ The project must cover all three components of the class – Human and Social Capital – Strategy – Multinational Management Components of Grade (NOT equally weighted) †¢ Use of frameworks (most important issue) †¢ Quality of research †¢ Innovativeness/Insight of analysis †¢ Integration of different components of class †¢ Quality of communication 14 †¢ ? of grade will be based on presentation; ? on final project write up †¢ We will also use a peer assessment to adjust the grade for effort put in by each team member

An Analysis Of Charlton Heston’s Essay Essay

The message of Charlton Heston’s speech is that there is a cultural war going on where the freedom to think and to express those thoughts in the way one believes to be right is being curtailed and that the audience, who are students of Harvard Law School who are perceived to be champions of free thought must live up to this expectation even to the point of employing the method of peaceful civil disobedience as was done by Martin Luther King. This is an appealing message to this specific audience because it played on the pride of the Harvard students of being â€Å"champions of free thought† and it serves to challenge them on living up to this expectation as stated earlier. Heston established his ethos by building on his various experiences in the movie industry, politics, civil activism and military through which he was able to establish his intelligence, character and goodwill. These are three traits which according to Aristotle builds up the credibility of a speaker (Griffin). First, he used his persona as a movie star where he related his triumph in portraying great men to his task at hand. To this effect he said, â€Å"If my Creator gave me the gift to connect with the hearts and minds of those great men, then I want to use the same gift now to re-connect with your own sense of liberty, your own freedom of thought, your own compass for what is right. † (1999) As part of the introductory paragraphs in the speech, this served to cement his credibility generally to speak not only of the subject but also on any topic for that matter. These words were uttered to achieve the effect of making his audience rise up to their supposed role as part of the prime law school in the land to be the first to lobby for the freedom of thought and expression even if it means walking the footsteps of civil disobedience like Martin Luther King. Despite the noble intentions of Heston, the students are not the appropriate target of these words. The proper audience for these would be their mentors or professors and the university’s leaders because whatever the latter’s values and principles will be cascaded to the students through the university’s curricula or teaching strategies, for example. He added significant details regarding his political and military career to deepen his credibility. He mentioned becoming president of the National Rifle Association, his association with Martin Luther King, his days in civil activism, his service during the World War II. What concretized his credibility was when he cited the event when he read to the stockholders of Time Warner and the press corps afterwards the lyrics of IceT’s song Cop Killer â€Å"celebrating the ambushing and murdering of police officers† (Heston, 1999). This led to the cancelling of IceT’s contract and the release of the album. Heston used the pathos â€Å"shame† countless times during the speech in order to challenge his audience not to tolerate their perceived social conformance. He insulted them several times to achieve this. For this he uttered the following: â€Å"Before you claim to be a champion of free thought, tell me: Why did political correctness originate of American campuses? And why do you continue to tolerate it? Why do you, who’re supposed to debate ideas, surrender to their suppression?; â€Å"You are the best and the brightest†¦. But I submit that you and your counterparts across the land are the most socially conformed and politically silenced generation†¦ And as long as you validate that and abide it, you are, by your grandfathers’ standards, cowards. † and; â€Å"Who will defend the core values of academia, if you, the supposed soldiers of free thought and expression lay down your arms and plead, â€Å"Don’t shoot me. †(1999) The examples posed in the speech are not consistent and fully effective. For instance, the case of Antioch College in Ohio where the courtship process must have the approval and knowledge of the college; in New Jersey where doctors who are infected with HIV are not required to discuss this with their patients; the segregation of black students at the University of Pennsylvania; and the controversial forced resignation of David Howard only because he said the word niggardly during a meeting; these are examples which are given to elaborate on the curtailing of the freedom on what to think, what to say and how to express these thoughts. These evidence the â€Å"cultural war† stated in the thesis statement meant to elaborate on the problem being tackled in the speech. These are also meant to cultivate indignation on the part of the audience. The rest of the examples are not consistent with this motive, however, since they exemplify for instance respect and protection of the rights of tranvestites and transsexuals and establishing connection with Hispanic roots which are irrelevant, if not contradictory to the thesis of the speech Heston also used enthymeme as an argument to support the statement by Martin Gross that, â€Å"blatantly irrational behavior is rapidly being established as the norm in almost every area of human endeavor†¦ Americans know something without a name is undermining the country, turning the mind mushy when it comes to separating the truth from falsehood and right from wrong†¦ † The enthymeme was when Heston posed the premise that he thinks that â€Å"hyphenated identities are awkward† specifically Native-American. After which he said he is a Native American and even a â€Å"blood-initiated brother of the Miniconjou Sioux†. It was at this juncture that he left the argument open for the audience to make their own conclusion. Charlton Heston has effectively established his ethos during the speech by banking on his relevant experiences. He also made very clear his intentions in delivering the speech. However, he did not present enough convincing logos in order to support his intentions and to move his audience to action. The appropriateness of some of his words can also be questioned. The organization of the speech can be considered exemplary in that first he used ethos to establish his credibility, then rightfully followed it with logos and then pathos in the end. Thus, over-all the speech was effective in that the speaker was able to establish his credibility well but partially ineffective because of the choice of logos and pathos.

Public Bank Group : strategy and analysis

Executive SummaryThe rubric of this assignment is Public Bank Group and it consists of a sum of three subdivisions in this assignment. The first subdivision explains about the scheme and mission statement that practiced by Public Bank, and the linkage between scheme and mission statement of Public Bank. The 2nd subdivision of the assignment explains about the organisation construction design of Public Bank and what is the importance and forte of the construction that applied by Public Bank. The last subdivision of the assignment contains of the competition arise between Public Bank, Maybank, and CIMB Bank. Besides that, I would take SWOT analysis to analyse the competition arise between its rivals in order to cognize whose is better. Assorted methods have been used to research for findings such as interview, e-brary, cyberspace, and books.Table of ContentssExecutive Summary Table of Contentss 1.0 Introduction 2.0 Mission Statement and Strategy of Public Bank 2.1 Mission of Public Bank Group 2.2 The linkage between Mission of and Strategy of the Public Bank Group 2.3 Drumhead 3.0 Organization Structure Design of the Public Bank Group 3.1 Interviewee Statement 3.2 Divisional Structure of Public Bank Jalan Yang Kalsom 3.3 Drumhead 4.0 Competition Arise between Public Bank, Maybank and CIMB Bank 4.1 Identify the Public Bank Group’s Rivals 4.2 SWOT Analysis 4.3 Drumhead 5.0 Conclusion and Recommendations 6.0 Mentions 7.0 Appendix1.0 IntroductionStrategic direction is a set of managerial determinations and actions that determine the long tally public presentation of a corporation as stated in Strategic direction and concern policy ( Wheelen and Hunger, 2012 ) . The assignment rubric is about Public Bank Group in Malaysia. Public Bank Group is the 3rd largest banking group in Malaysia by plus size with entire assets of RM305.73 billion as at the terminal of 2013, and is ranked 2nd among all the public listed companies on Bursa Malaysia Securities in footings of market capitalisation. There are entire of three subdivisions in the assignment. Section one will be covering the scheme and mission statement that practiced by Public Bank Group. Furthermore, subdivision two will be covering the organisation construction design that applied by Public Bank Group while subdivision three will be covering the competition arise between Public Bank Group and its rivals which is CIMB Bank and Maybank.2.0 Mission Statement and Strategy of Public BankBased on the Idaho National Laboratory ( Inlportal.inl.gov, 2014 ) , Mission Definition consists of those actions taken to specify the mission for a system and the environment that affects its executing. The mission statement must specify the bing status that justifies the plan or undertaking demand, the coveted terminal province or merchandise ( s ) , and the public presentation outlook.2.1 Mission of Public Bank GroupHarmonizing to the one-year study of Public Bank Group ( Public Bank Berhad, 2013 ) , the corporate mission of Public Bank Group is to prolong the place of being the most efficient, profitable and respected premier fiscal establishment in Malaysia. To accomplish the corporate mission, Public Bank Group will hold a corporate scheme that sets out what its long-run aims are in footings of what concern it plans to be involved and concern scheme that sets out how the organisation plans to win in a given concern country.2.2 The linkage between Mission of and Strategy of the Public Bank GroupAs we mentioned earlier, Public Bank Group adopts corporate scheme that focused on consistent growing scheme, which is to prosecute organic growing in the retail banking concern concentrating on the broad-based retail consumers and small-and moderate-sized endeavors ( â€Å" SMEs † ) , and strives to farther increase its leading in the retail banking market as stated in official web site of Public Bank Group ( Pbebank.com, n.d. ) . A recent article ( Nickols, 2011 ) , stated that a scheme or general program of action might be formulated for wide, long-run, corporate ends and aims, for more specific concern unit ends and aims, or for a functional unit, even one every bit little as a cost centre. There are different degrees of scheme within an organisation which is corporate scheme, concern scheme and functional scheme. Corporate scheme ( Yunizal Arief, 2014 ) , is a scheme of corporate that requires the company’s top directors and determination addressed to the satisfaction of the stakeholders of the company. The directors at the corporate degree by and large make up one's mind what sort of concern to be conducted to bring forth long-run net income maximization and better the company’s gross stockholders. Furthermore, corporate scheme can take for growing, stableness or reclamation. The Unlocking the concern environment ( Brinkman, 2010 ) , published that a growing scheme aims to increase the sum of concern undertaken by spread outing the scope of merchandises or services, and the markets it serves. As defined in Strategic direction ( Dess and Miller, 1993 ) , concern scheme is all about how houses compete, and in concern, competition is all about value: making it and capturing it. From the information above, we can reason that the schemes that practiced by Public Bank Group are able to accomplish their mission statement because the schemes and mission statement are interrelated. Therefore, to accomplish the place of being the most profitable, Public Bank Group adopts corporate scheme that focused on consistent growing scheme. Harmonizing to Ivey Business Journal ( Liabotis, 2007 ) , far excessively many companies fail to accomplish their growing marks in gross and profitableness. However, the chance of accomplishing profitable growing is heightened whenever an organisation has a clear growing scheme and strong executing substructure. One without the other impairs the chance of success. Furthermore, to prolong the place of being the most efficient, Public Bank Group adopts concern scheme that focused on the Group ‘s retail banking concern continues to aim retail consumer and commercial loans and funding, sedimentations and fee-based concerns. Besides that, to drive concern growing and increase its market portion in retail banking, the Public Bank Group leverages on its well-established client service substructure, procedures and patterns to present prompt and consistent service to run into the demands of its clients. As stated by The Boston Group ( Leichtfuss et al. , 2010 ) , Banks should take stairss to ingrain cost efficiency by industrialising procedures, set uping cardinal or regional processing centres, and developing IT and operations platforms. Therefore, all Bankss will be forced to better their procedure efficiency in the coming old ages, non merely to cut down costs but besides better client service.2.3 DrumheadBy analysing the Public Bank Groupâ₠¬â„¢s scheme through the one-year study 2013, we could reason that Public Bank Group able to accomplish the mission statement as mentioned above.3.0 Organization Structure Design of the Public Bank GroupBased on Unlocking the concern environment ( Brinkman, 2010 ) , the manner an organisation organizes itself in footings of who does desire, and who reports to whom, is fundamentally what organisational construction is concerned with. The construction of an organisation needs to guarantee that it is able to accomplish its mission and aims in an effectual and efficient mode. In other words, an organisation needs to be structured in an appropriate manner to acquire things done, while besides enabling a grade of flexibleness that will enable it to run into what can frequently be fast paced alterations in the external concern environment. Sometimes, direction may make up one's mind that the construction of an organisation needs to alter, and this is referred to as organisational design.3.1 Interviewee StatementName: Sarah Choong Suet Yee Position: Senior Financial ExecutiveWhat is the organisational construction of this subdivision?One subdivision directorOne Business Managers ( loan and mortgage )Assistant subdivision director ( operation )Departments:SOO- Senior Operation OfficerOO- Operation OfficerOIC- Officer in ChargeWhat are the classs of section in this subdivision?Investing – insurance & A ; unit trustCredit Card – recognition card & A ; safety boxCustomer Service – Customer service representatives ( CSR )Operationss ( Teller, under control of OO )3.2 Divisional Structure of Public Bank Jalan Yang KalsomAs stated by Strategic Management ( Miller and Dess, 1998 ) , a divisional or strategic concern unit ( SBU ) is a construction covers a set of comparatively independent entities governed by a cardinal disposal. Harmonizing to Miss Choong the Senior Financial Executive of Public Bank Group in Ipoh Jalan Yang Kalsom Branch, the organisation construction that applied by Public Bank is one subdivision director, one concern troughs ( loan and mortgage ) and adjunct subdivision director ( operation ) . Hence, I assumed that the organisation construction that applied by Public Bank Group is divisional construction. Figure 1: Organization construction of Public Bank Branch at Jalan Yang Kalsom ( Own Adaptation, 2014 ) As the figure above, subdivision director is ranked highest place in the Public Bank Branch Jalan Yang Kalsom. The subdivision director of Public Bank Jalan Yang Kalsom will make up one's mind the concluding determination of all the planning and waies. After that, the concern trough and the helper subdivision director will be in-charge on the loan and mortgage unit. Furthermore, the helper subdivision director will be in-charge on the client service unit, investing unit, operation unit and recognition card unit. For illustration, a client is confronting history jobs so the client will be served by the officer at client service unit. The divisional construction is of import to the Public Bank Group because it helps organisation to avoid many jobs typically found in organisations structured by map. Furthermore, directors can more dressed ore on their ain peculiar merchandise lines and markets, and they have entree to resources and staff functional specializers. Delegating determination devising to take down managerial degrees moves determinations closer to merchandises and markets, which facilitates faster determinations from those who are more specialised and knowing in the merchandise country. This allows a high grade of accent to be placed on merchandises and markets. Besides that, it besides improves a firm’s ability to accommodate during rapid environmental alteration.3.3 DrumheadIn short, the organisation construction design is really of import to all the organisations particularly Public Bank Group. The divisional construction helps Public Bank Group to avoid many jobs typically found in organisation structured by map.4.0 Competition Arise between Public Bank, Maybank and CIMB BankWhen there is competition arise between Public Bank, Maybank, and CIMB Bank, Public Bank needs to happen out about its rivals. The first measure is rival analysis which is the procedure of placing cardinal rivals ; measuring their aims, schemes, strengths, and failings. In this manner, the company would be able to happen countries of possible competitory advantages and disadvantages as stated in the Principles of Marketing ( Kotler and Armstrong, 1991 ) .4.2 SWOT AnalysisIn this subdivision, I will utilize SWOT analysis to analyse the competition arise between Public Bank, Maybank, and CIMB Bank. Based on The Principles of Marketing ( Kotler and Armstrong, 1991 ) , SWOT analysis is an overall rating of the company’s strengths, failings, chances, and menaces. Strengths include internal capablenesss, resources, and positive stuational factors that may assist the company to function its clients an d accomplish its aims. Failings include internal restrictions and negative stituational factors that may interfere with the company’s public presentation. Opportunities are favourable factors or tendencies in the external environment that the company may be able to work to its advantage. And menaces are unfavourable external factors or tendencies that may show challenges to public presentation.4.3 DrumheadAs the illustrated on Table 1, I’m assume that the scheme used by Public Bank is better than Maybank and CIMB Bank because Public Bank has the nucleus competences with the higher one-year returns increasing yearly and unbroken net income path record of their group. Harmonizing to the Pubic Bank Investor Presentation Citi ASEAN Investor Conference 2014 Singapore ( Public Bank Berhad, 2014 ) , Public Bank has 47 old ages of unbroken profitableness and healthy net income growing in the past 5 old ages.5.0 Conclusion and RecommendationsStrategic direction is a set of mana gerial determinations and actions that determine the long-term public presentation of a corporation as stated in Strategic direction and concern policy ( Wheelen and Hunger, 2012 ) . In subdivision 1, Public Bank Group has adopts the growing scheme and concern scheme in order to accomplish the corporate mission â€Å"To sustain the place of being the most efficient, profitable and respected premier fiscal establishment in Malaysia† . In subdivision 2, the divisional construction has brings a batch of benefit to all the organisation particularly Public Bank Group where it helps the organisation to avoid many jobs typically found in organisations structured by map. In subdivision 3, Public Bank is much better after compared with its rivals which is Maybank and CIMB Bank through the SWOT analysis. Last but non least, the recommendation for the Public Bank Group is to maintain set more attempts on their development in order to accomplish and prolong the place of being the most efficient, profitable and respected premier fiscal establishment in Malaysia.

Conflicts of Globalization and Restructuring of Education Essay

The September 11 terrorist attacks have generated a wealth of theoretical reflection as well as regressive political responses by the Bush administration and other governments (Kellner, 2003b). The 9/11 attacks and subsequent Bush administration military response have dramatized once again the centrality of globalization in contemporary experience and the need for adequate conceptualizations and responses to it for critical theory and pedagogy to maintain their relevance in the present age. In this article, I want to argue that critical educators need to comprehend the conflicts of globalization, terrorism, and the prospects and obstacles to democratization in order to develop pedagogies adequate to the challenges of the present age. Accordingly, I begin with some comments on how the September 11 terror attacks call attention to key aspects of globalization, and then provide a critical theory of globalization, after which I suggest some pedagogical initiatives to aid in the democratic reconstruction of education after 9/11.1 September 11 and Globalization The terrorist acts on the United States on September 11 and the subsequent Terror War throughout the world dramatically disclose the downside of globalization, and the ways that global flows of technology, goods, information, ideologies, and people can have destructive as well as productive effects.2 The disclosure of powerful anti-Western terrorist networks shows that globalization divides the world just as it unifies, that it produces enemies as it incorporates participants. The events reveal explosive contradictions and conflicts at the heart of globalization and that the technologies of information, communication, and transportation that facilitate globaliz ation can also be used to undermine and attack it, and generate instruments of destruction as well as production. The experience of September 11 points to the objective ambiguity of globalization, that positive and negative sides are interconnected, that the institutions of the open society unlock the possibilities of destruction and violence, as well as democracy, free trade, and cultural and social exchange. Once again, the interconnection and interdependency of the networked world was dramatically demonstrated as terrorists from the Middle East brought local grievances from their region to attack key symbols of US military power and the very infrastructure of Wall Street. Some see terrorism as an expression of â€Å"the dark side of globalization,† while I would conceive it as part of the objective ambiguity of globalization that simultaneously creates friends and enemies, wealth and poverty, and growing divisions between the â€Å"haves† and â€Å"have nots.† Yet, the downturn in the global economy, intensification of local and global political conflicts, repression of human rights and civil liberties, and general increase in fear and anxiety have certainly undermined the naà ¯ve optimism of globophiles who perceived globalization as a purely positive instrument of progress and well-being. The use of powerful technologies as weapons of destruction also discloses current asymmetries of power and emergent forms of terrorism and war, as the new millennium exploded into dangerous conflicts and military interventions. As technologies of mass destruction become more available and dispersed, perilous instabilities have emerged that have elicited policing measures to stem the flow of movements of people and goods across borders and internally. In particular, the U.S. â€Å"Patriot Act† has led to repressive measures that are replacing the spaces of the open and free information society with new forms of surveillance, policing, and restrictions of civil liberties, thus significantly undermining U.S. democracy (see Kellner, 2003b). Ultimately, however, the abhorrent terror acts by the bin Laden network and the violent military response by the Bush administration may be an anomalous paroxysm whereby a highly regressive premodern Islamic fundamentalism has clashed with an old-fashioned patriarchal and unilateralist Wild West militarism. It could be that such forms of terrorism, militarism, and state repression will be superseded by more rational forms of politics that globalize and criminalize terrorism, and that do not sacrifice the benefits of the open society and economy in the name of security. Yet the events of September 11 may open a new era of Terror War that will lead to the kind of apocalyptic futurist world depicted by cyberpunk fiction (see Kellner 2003b). In any case, the events of September 11 have promoted a fury of reflection, theoretical debates, and political conflicts and upheaval that put the complex dynamics of globalization at the center of contemporary theory and politics. To those skeptical of the centrality of globalization to contemporary experience, it is now clear that we are living in a global world that is highly interconnected and vulnerable to passions and crises that can cross borders and can affect anyone or any region at any time. The events of September 11 and their aftermath also provide a test case to evaluate various theories of globalization in the contemporary era. In addition, they highlight some of the contradictions of globalization and the need to develop a highly complex and dialectical model to capture its conflicts, ambiguities, and contradictory effects. Consequently, I argue that in order to properly theorize globalization one needs to conceptualize several sets of contradictions generated by globalization’s combination of technological revolution and restructuring of capital, which, in turn, generate tensions between capitalism and democracy, and â€Å"haves† and â€Å"have nots.† Within the world economy, globalization involves the proliferation of the logic of capital, but also the spread of democracy in information, finance, investing, and the diffusion of technology (see Friedman, 1999 and Hardt and Negri, 2000). Globalization is thus a contradictory amalgam of capital ism and democracy, in which the logic of capital and the market system enter ever more arenas of global life, even as democracy spreads and more political regions and spaces of everyday life are being contested by democratic demands and forces. But the overall process is contradictory. Sometimes globalizing forces promote democracy and sometimes inhibit it, thus either equating capitalism and democracy, or simply opposing them, are problematical. The processes of globalization are highly turbulent and have generated intense conflicts throughout the world. Benjamin Barber (1996) describes the strife between McWorld and Jihad, contrasting the homogenizing, commercialized, Americanized tendencies of the global economy and culture with anti-modernizing Jihadist movements that affirm traditional cultures and are resistant to aspects of neoliberal globalization. Thomas Friedman (1999) makes a more benign distinction between what he calls the â€Å"Lexus† and the â€Å"Olive Tree.† The former is a symbol of modernization, of affluence and luxury, and of Westernized consumption, contrasted with the Olive Tree that is a symbol of roots, tradition, place, and stable community. Barber (1996), however, is too negative toward McWorld and Jihad, failing to adequately describe the democratic and progressive forces within both. Although Barber recognizes a dialectic of McWorld and Jihad, he opposes both to democracy, failing to perceive how they generate their own democratic forces and tendencies, as well as opposing and undermining democratization. Within Western democracies, for instance, there is not just top-down homogenization and corporate domination, but also globalization-from-below and oppositional social movements that desire alternatives to capitalist globalization. Thus, it is not only traditionalist, non-Western forces of Jihad that oppose McWorld. Likewise, Jihad has its democratizing forces as well as the reactionary Islamic fundamentalists who are now the most demonized elements of the contemporary era, as I discuss below. Jihad, like McWorld, has its contradictions and its potential for democratization, as well as elements of domination and destruction.3 Friedman, by contrast, is too uncritical of globalization, caught up in his own Lexus highconsumption life-style, failing to perceive the depth of the oppressive features of globalization and breadth and extent of resistance and opposition to it. In particular, he fails to articulate the contradictions between capitalism and democracy, and the ways that globalization and its economic logic undermine democracy as well as encouraging it. Likewise, he does not grasp the virulence of the premodern and Jihadist tendencies that he blithely identifies with the Olive tree, and the reasons why globalization and the West are so strongly resisted in many parts of the world. Hence, it is important to present globalization as a strange amalgam of both homogenizing forces of sameness and uniformity, and heterogeneity, difference, and hybridity, as well as a contradictory mixture of democratizing and anti-democratizing tendencies. On one hand, globalization unfolds a process of standardization in which a globalized mass culture circulates the globe creating sameness and homogeneity everywhere. But globalized culture makes possible unique appropriations and developments all over the world, thus proliferating hybrids, difference, and heterogeneity.4 Every local context involves its own appropriation and reworking of global products and signifiers, thus proliferating difference, otherness, diversity, and variety (Luke and Luke, 2000 ). Grasping that globalization embodies these contradictory tendencies at once, that it can be both a force of homogenization and heterogeneity, is crucial to articulating the contradictions of globalization and avoiding one-sided and reductive conceptions. My intention is to present globalization as conflictual, contradictory and open to resistance and democratic intervention and transformation and not just as a monolithic juggernaut of progress or domination as in many other discourses. This goal is advanced by distinguishing between â€Å"globalization from below† and â€Å"globalization from above† of corporate capitalism and the capitalist state, a distinction that should help us to get a better sense of how globalization does or does not promote democratization. â€Å"Globalization from below† refers to the ways in which marginalized individuals and social movements and critical pedagogues resist globalization and/or use its institutions and instruments to further democratization and social justice. Yet, one needs to avoid binary normative articulations, since globalization from below can have highly conservative and destructive effects, as well as positive ones, while globalization from above can help produce global solutions to problems like terrorism or the environment. Moreover, on one hand, as Michael Peters argues (forthcoming), globalization itself is a kind of war and much militarism has been expansive and globalizing in many historical situations. On the other hand, antiwar and peace movements are also increasingly global, hence globalization itself is marked by tensions and contradictions. Thus, while on one level, globalization significantly increases the supremacy of big corporations and big government, it can also give power to groups and individuals that were previously left out of the democratic dialogue and terrain of political struggle. Such potentially positive effects of globalization include increased access to education for individuals excluded from sharing culture and knowledge and the possibility of oppositional individuals and groups to participate in global culture and politics through gaining access to global communication and media networks and to circulate local struggles and oppositional ideas through these media. The role of information technologies in social movements, political struggle, and everyday life forces social movements and critical theorists to reconsider their political strategies and goals and democratic theory to appraise how new technologies do and do not promote democratization (Kellner, 1995b, 1997 and 1999b; Best and Kellner 2001; Kahn and Kellner 2003). In their book Empire, Hardt and Negri (2000) present contradictions within globalization in terms of an imperializing logic of â€Å"Empire† and an assortment of struggles by the multitude, creating a contradictory and tension-full situation. As in my conception, Hardt and Negri present globalization as a complex process that involves a multidimensional mixture of expansions of the global economy and capitalist market system, information technologies and media, expanded judicial and legal modes of governance, and emergent modes of power, sovereignty, and resistance.5 Combining poststructuralism with â€Å"autonomous Marxism,† Hardt and Negri stress political openings and possibilities of struggle within Empire in an optimistic and buoyant text that envisages progressive democratization and self-valorization in the turbulent process of the restructuring of capital. Many theorists, by contrast, have argued that one of the trends of globalization is depoliticization of publics, the decline of the nation-state, and the end of traditional politics (Boggs, 2000). While I would agree that globalization is promoted by extremely powerful economic forces and that it often undermines democratic movements and decision-making, one should also note that there are openings and possibilities for a globalization from below that inflects globalization for positive and progressive ends, and that globalization can thus help promote as well as destabilize democracy.6 Globalization involves both a disorganization and reorganization of capitalism, a turbulent restructuring process, which creates openings for progressive social change and intervention as well as highly destructive transformative effects. On the positive ledger, in a more fluid and open economic and political system, oppositional forces can gain concessions, win victories, and effect progressive changes. During the 1970s, new social movements, new nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and new forms of struggle and solidarity emerged that have been expanding to the present day (Hardt and Negri, 2000; Burbach, 2001; Best and Kellner, 2001; and Foran, 2003). The anti-corporate globalization of the 1990s emerged as a form of globalization from below, but so too did Al Qaeda and various global terror networks, which intensified their attacks and helped generate an era of Terror War. This made it difficult simply to affirm globalization from below while denigrating globalization from above, as clearly terrorism was an emergent and dangerous form of globalization from below that was a threat to peace, security, and democracy. Moreover, in the face of Bush administration unilateralism and militarism, multilateral approaches to the problems of terrorism called for global responses and alliances to a wide range of global problems (see Kellner 2003b and Barber 2003), thus demanding a progressive and cosmopolitan globalization to deal with contemporary challenges. Moreover, the present conjuncture is marked by a conflict between growing centralization and organization of power and wealth in the hands of the few contrasted with opposing processes exhibiting a fragmentation of power that is more plural, multiple, and open to contestation. As the following analysis will suggest, both tendencies are observable and it is up to individuals and groups to find openings for progressive political intervention, social transformation, and the democratization of education that pursue positive values such as democracy, human rights, literacy, equality, ecological preservation and restoration, and social justice, while figh ting poverty, ignorance, terror, and injustice. Thus, rather than just denouncing globalization, or engaging in celebration and legitimation, a critical theory of globalization reproaches those aspects that are oppressive, while seizing upon opportunities to fight domination and exploitation and to promote democratization, justice, and a forward looking reconstruction of the polity, society, and culture. Against capitalist globalization from above, there has been a significant eruption of forces and subcultures of resistance that have attempted to preserve specific forms of culture and society against globalization and homogenization, and to create alternative forces of society and culture, thus exhibiting resistance and globalization from below. Most dramatically, peasant and guerrilla movements in Latin America, labor unions, students, and environmentalists throughout the world, and a variety of other groups and movements have resisted capitalist globalization and attacks on previous rights and benefits. 7 Several dozen people’s organizations from around the world have protested World Trade Organization (WTO) policies and a backlash against globalization is visible everywhere. Politicians who once championed trade agreements like GATT and NAFTA are now often quiet about these arrangements or example, at the 1996 annual Davos World Economic Forum its founder and managing director published a warning entitled: â€Å"Start Taking the Backlash Against Globalization Seriously.† Reports surfaced that major representatives of the capitalist system expressed fear that capitalism was getting too mean and predatory, that it needs a kinder and gentler state to ensure order and harmony, and that the welfare state may make a come-back (see the article in New York Times, February 7, 1996: A15).8 One should take such reports with the proverbial grain of salt, but they express fissures and openings in the system for critical discourse and intervention. Indeed, by 1999, the theme of the annual Davos conference was making globalization work for poor countries and minimizing the differences between the â€Å"haves† and â€Å"have nots.† The growing divisions between rich and poor were worrying some globalizers, as were the wave of crises in Asian, Latin American, and other â€Å"developing countries†. In James Flanigan’s report in the Los Angeles Times (Febr. 19, 1999), the â€Å"main theme† is to â€Å"spread the wealth. In a world frightened by glaring imbalances and the weakness of economies from Indonesia to Russia, the talk is no longer of a new world economy getting stronger but of ways to ‘keep the engine going.'† In particular, the globalizers were attempting to keep economies growing in the more developed countries and capital flowing to developing nations. U.S. Vice-President Al Gore called on all countries to spur economic growth, and he proposed a new U.S.-led initiative to eliminate the debt burdens of developing countries. South African President Nelson Mandela asked: â€Å"Is globalization only for the powerful? Does it offer nothing to the men, women and children who are ravaged by the violence of poverty?† As the new millennium opened, there was no clear answer to Mandela’s question. In the 2000s, there have been ritual proclamations of the need to make globalization work for the developing nations at all major meetings of global institutions like the WTO or G-8 convenings. For instance, at the September 2003 WTO meeting at Cancun, organizers claimed that its goal was to fashion a new trade agreement that would reduce poverty and boost development in poorer nations. But critics pointed out that in the past years the richer nations of the U.S., Japan, and Europe continued to enforce trade tariffs and provide subsidies for national producers of goods such as agriculture, while forcing poorer nations to open their markets to â€Å"free trade,† thus bankrupting agricultural sectors in these countries that could not compete. Significantly, the September 2003 WTO trade talks in Cancun collapsed as leaders of the developing world concurred with protestors and blocked expansion of a â€Å"free trade zone† that would mainly benefit the US and overdeveloped countries. Likewise, in Miami in November 2003 the â€Å"Free-Trade Summit† collapsed without an agreement as the police violently suppressed protestors.9 Moreover, major economists like Joseph Stiglitz (2002), as well as anti-corporate globalization protestors and critics, argued that the developing countries were not adequately benefiting under current corporate globalization policies and that divisions between the rich and poor nations were growing. Under these conditions, critics of globalization were calling for radically new policies that would help the developing countries, regulate the rich and overdeveloped countries, and provide more power to working people and local groups. The Global Movement Against Capitalist Globalization With the global economic recession and the Terror War erupting in 2001, the situation of many developing countries has worsened. As part of the backlash against globalization in recent years, a wide range of theorists have argued that the proliferation of difference and the shift to more local discourses and practices best define the contemporary scene. In this view, theory and politics should shift from the level of globalization (and its accompanying often totalizing and macro dimensions) in order to focus on the local, the specific, the particular, the heterogeneous, and the micro level of everyday experience. An array of theories associated with poststructuralism, postmodernism, feminism, and multiculturalism focus on difference, otherness, marginality, the personal, the particular, and the concrete in contrast to more general theory and politics that aim at more global or universal conditions. 10 Likewise, a broad spectrum of subcultures of resistance have focused their attention on the local level, organizing struggles around identity issues such as gender, race, sexual preference, or youth subculture (see Kahn and Kellner, 2003). It can be argued that such dichotomies as those between the global and the local express contradictions and tensions between crucial constitutive forces on the present scene. It may be a mistake to focus on one side of the global/local polarity in favor of exclusive concern with the other side (Cvetkovitch and Kellner, 1997). Hence, an important challenge for a critical theory of globalization is to think through the relationships between the global and the local by observing how global forces influence and even structure an increasing number of local situations.

Champion Of The World English Literature Essay

Champion Of The World English Literature Essay Throughout the years, sports have become a major part of society. It has been known to bring out the best and worst of people. People usually go after a team from their home town or teams with the same ethnic background. It has often been learned that, from this, language barriers begin to cross each other, and prejudices develop. Maya Angelou’s â€Å"Champion of the World† is much more than a chapter in a book. It represents much more than a boxing victory. During the 1930’s, people of ethnic groups, especially Blacks, were not worth much. When Angelou stated, â€Å"Champion of the world. A Black boy. Some Black mother’s son.† (Paragraph 27), this defined struggle. This battle against the White Contender was not your ordinary victory. The victory would exemplify the Blacks, not only defeating a White man and it being okay, but also would portray an aspect of Blacks defeating the system. For once in their lives, it gave African Americans a sense of empowerment. This was their first step of defense, where no repercussions would be taken in exchange for victory. â€Å"If Joe lost we were back in slavery and beyond help. † â€Å"My race groaned. It was our people falling†. (Paragraphs 16 and 17).[Reference?] These two quotes represent struggle and years of pain. They knew what it was like to experience violence first hand. It was not a myth nor story they heard about, they felt the pain on a daily basis. Not only would this defeat be a lost for Louis, but it would represent defeat to the entire Black culture. If this were to happen, Maya Angelou said it herself, Blacks were helpless. To them, it was back to torture, inferiority, pain, and suffering. To the Whites it would be accomplishment, defeat, superiority, and power. As stated before, this defeat was a mere symbol of Blacks regaining strength after all they had been through over the years; however, this did not defeat the purpose that racism still existed. In the last paragraph of this chapter in the book, it talked about the precautions Blacks would have to take after the victory of Joe Louis. Even though Louis’ defeat against the White Contender gave him the title as â€Å"Heavy Weight Champion of the World†, it also was now a risk for Blacks. Mentioned earlier, at the time, racism still existed. Racism is prejudice plus power: meaning, because the Whites had prejudice against any other ethnic group, and they possessed a power that came from the simple privilege of being White. If at any time Whites felt disrespected, they had the â€Å"right† to reprimand them at any cost. This is only portion of the violence occurring in and around 1930. In the opening paragraph of this paper, it gives the introductory opinion. Over the years, sports have become the core to many people in society. It can either better a person and/or society or worsen them. In other words, a person can look at competitiveness at a positive or neg ative approach. As far as positive competitiveness is concerned, it can be looked upon to better a person. It can also be detrimental, literally speaking. Too many times in society today, people take sports to the extreme. There has been many instances where people have even lost their lives as a result of a bet on the victory of a game, or even the preference one has over the other. Sports have an immense influence over culture and society then and now. For example, the victory of Joe Louis was more than a victory. It was symbolic to the African American culture and society. It gave them pride, and for many who have never experienced anything like this, it was a first. This is only one example of the influence sports have on culture.

Video Surveillance Cameras vs. Personal Privacy Research Paper

Video Surveillance Cameras vs. Personal Privacy - Research Paper Example This research will begin with the statement that video surveillance has been in existence for a long time now. Often you will find cameras in shopping malls, bank halls, workplaces, airports, transportation hubs and mostly on urban streets. As modernization and development increased, the number of risks also grew to such an alarming extent that employers, governments, organizations and even individuals saw the need for keeping a close watch on their lives and property. Video surveillance has been more embraced in the recent times compared to other complex systems. Camera surveillance has taken over the market as a main figure of supervision in high risk public and private areas, where theft and terrorism are observed to be prevalent. The digital technology has proved to be the ultimate stimulator for camera surveillance, which comes in a variety of models that could be easily implemented for use. According to Jones, there are about 100 million CCTV cameras operating in the world of w hich 30 million can be identified to be from the United States. Systems of video surveillance cameras have been applied widely to different situations and not necessarily to intrude on personal privacy but to monitor and supervise activities for the intended purposes. The use of surveillance cameras is potentially used and recognized in the European nations more than in the United States, with Europe significantly overstating the benefits of the CCTV.... It is obvious that those cameras will be deployed on both ordinary public places and even more private areas, which are prone to crime. The constitution project staff (12) mentions that video surveillance is carried out in line with the need for police investigation, in a suspected criminal act of an individual in New York, pursuant to a warrant. Most of the crimes are strategically organized not to occur in an open place, rather looking for a secluded environment to pursue their mission. Placing cameras in such locations would make it easier for security agencies to deter crime and capture the offenders. Many in the society oppose the government strategy, claiming that they are being watched or recorded enough to read an individual’s next move and the way they privately carry themselves in the public. A study on Manhattan surveillance cameras established that there were high chances of being recorded almost every step of the way, as one walked around the city and most especia lly, it seems to be worse when more cameras are even located in some sacred public domains (Winston and Edelbach 223). While this is true, individuals concentrate more on their private life and tend to forget that the primary concern is not surveillance intrusion in privacy, but to gather and cover timed activities for analysis and as evidence in case of an event (Constitution Project Staff 8). Again, individuals who seem to be anxious would portray a character that would raise the suspicion of security agents monitoring activities on cameras, making them question whether the individual has a hidden agenda. With border patrol surveillance, cameras are placed on roads, highways and at the border to keep watch and control exits and