11 Facts About Elder Abuse Essay Example for Free

11 Facts About Elder Abuse Essay 1. Elder abuse most often takes place in the home where the senior lives. It can also happen in institutional settings, especially long-term care facilities. 2. Approximately 1.6 to 2 million seniors become victims of abuse or neglect in domestic and institutional settings in the U.S. every year. 3. The four most common forms of elder abuse are physical abuse (including sexual abuse), psychological and emotional abuse, financial/material abuse, and neglect. 4. Most elder abuse victims are dependent on their abuser for basic needs. 5. At least 1 in 9 Americans over the age of 60 has experienced some form of elder abuse. 6. Seniors who have been abused have a 300 percent higher risk of death when compared to those who weren’t. 7. In almost 90 percent of elder abuse and neglect incidents, the perpetrator is a family member. Two-thirds of perpetrators are adult children or spouses. 8. For every reported incident of elder abuse, five others go unreported. 9. Almost 50 percent of seniors with dementia (a decline in mental ability. Alzheimer’s is the most common type of dementia) experience some form of abuse. 10. While 91 percent of federal abuse prevention dollars are spent on child abuse, 7 percent is spent on domestic abuse, and only 2 percent goes towards protecting the elderly. 11. Legislatures in all 50 states have passed some type of elder abuse law. Types Although there are common themes of elder abuse across nations, there are also unique manifestations based upon history, culture, economic strength, and societal perceptions of older people within nations themselves. The fundamental common denominator is the use of power and control by one individual to affect the well-being and status of another, older, individual. There are several types of abuse of older people that are generally recognized as being elder abuse, including: Physical: e.g. hitting, punching, slapping, burning, pushing, kicking, restraining, false  imprisonment/confinement, or giving excessive or improper medication Psychological/Emotional: e.g. humiliating a person. A common theme is a perpetrator who identifies something that matters to an older person and then uses it to coerce an older person into a particular action. It may take verbal forms such as name-calling, ridiculing, constantly criticizing, accusations, blaming, or non verbal forms such as ignoring, si lence or shunning. Financial abuse: also known as financial exploitation. e.g. illegal or unauthorized use of a person’s property, money, pension book or other valuables (including changing the persons will to name the abuser as heir). It may be obtained by deception, coercion, misrepresentation, undue influence, or theft. This includes fraudulently obtaining or use of a power of attorney. Other forms include deprivation of money or other property, or by eviction from own home Scam by strangers: e.g. worthless sweepstakes that elderly persons must pay in order to collect winnings, fraudulent investment schemes, predatory lending, and lottery scams. Sexual: e.g. forcing a person to take part in any sexual activity without his or her consent, including forcing them to participate in conversations of a sexual nature against their will; may also include situations where person is no longer able to give consent (dementia) Neglect: e.g. depriving a person of food, heat, clothing or comfort or essential medication and depriving a person of needed services to force certain kinds of actions, financial and otherwise. The deprivation may be intentional (active neglect) or happen out of lack of knowledge or resources (passive neglect). Hybrid financial exploitation (HFE): e.g. financial exploitation that co-occurs with physical abuse and/or neglect. HFE victims are more likely to be co-habiting with abusive individual, to have fair/poor health, to fear the abusive individual, to perceive abusive individual as caretaker, and to have a longer duration abuse. In addition, some U.S. state laws also recognize the following as elder abuse: Abandonment: deserting a dependent person with the intent to abandon them or leave them unattended at a place for such a time period as may be likely to endanger their health or welfare. Rights abuse: denying the civil and constitutional rights of a person who is old, but not declared by court to be mentally incapacitated. This is an aspect of elder abuse that is increasingly being recognized and adopted by nations Self-neglect: elderly persons neglecting themselves by not caring about  their own health or safety. Self-neglect (harm by self) is treated as conceptually different as abuse (harm by others). Institutional abuse refers to physical or psychological harms, as well as rights violations in settings where care and assistance is provided to dependant older adults or others. What causes physical abuse of an elder? The exact cause of physical abuse is not known. Poor or crowded living conditions may be one of the reasons it occurs. The following may increase your risk of physical abuse: You have learning or memory problems. You have a long-term condition, such as dementia, diabetes, paralysis, or stroke. You have no relatives or friends who can take care of you. You have difficulty getting along with others. The carer depends heavily on you for things such as money or housing. The carer drinks alcohol or uses illegal drugs. The carer has a personality disorder, depression, or another mental illness. The carer has a history of family violence, such as physical or sexual abuse. The carer has stress due to work, taking care of you, or financial problems. What are the signs and symptoms of physical abuse of an elder? Repeated falls or injuries, or old injuries that were not treated when they happened Scratches, bite marks, or marks from objects used for restraining, such as belts, ropes, or electrical cords Broken or dislocated bones Cuts or bruises, especially on both upper arms (grab marks) Scars or burns from cigarettes, irons, or hot water Blood or discharge coming from your nose, mouth, or genitals

Critical analysis of management issue faced by Starbucks

Critical analysis of management issue faced by Starbucks 2. Introduction Essay two will carry out critical analysis of management issue faced by Starbucks. First of all it will discuss on the management issue faced by the company and further on will examining at the strategy that uses by Starbucks as part of their plans to recover from the management crisis. Marketing and advertising play an importance role in the part as the strategies on managing the issue. Critical analysis will be focus on the social media marketing strategy. Starbucks social media campaigns on Facebook will be examining from different viewpoints. Beginning with the success factor following by rewards that the company gained, additionally both risks and challenges of Starbuck might be facing in the future. In year 2008 operating income of Starbucks took a sharp drop, the majority of which stems from restructuring charges, related to store closures in the US and value share growth drop 0.5% from the year 2007 to 2008 (Euromonitor international, 2009). Chairman and CEO of Starbucks announced in year 2008 that unfortunately Starbucks would force to close down 600 stores this end of 2008 and lay off 12,000 employees. Its a blow, but far from fatal for a company with more than 6,700 locations in the United States and nearly 16,000 worldwide. (TheNewYorkTime, 2010). Figure 4 Revenue vs profit 2002-2008 of Starbucks. Source: Euromonitor international 2009 Figure 5 Comparable Store Sales, source: annual report of Starbuck 2008 In resolve part of the problem, Starbucks gone further that involved cutting costs and in the first three quarters of 2009 in few different areas, part of the cost cutting focus on marketing and advertising and this has resulted in savings of US$370 million(Euromonitor international, 2009). However gaining more sales will be the main objective for a healthy growth. Marketing and advertising will be the key element on increasing sales volume. Based on this principle, Starbucks will need to find and alternative way as a substitute for the traditional marketing and advertising. Figure 6 Starbucks Facebook social networking site page screen shoot. Source: Facebook.com 2010 Analysis, planning, implementation, control (APIC) system by Philip Kotler has been effectively as the subtitle of his Marketing Management (Kotler, 1994). As the management issue for Starbucks, managing the communication mix need to take place for solutions. Firstly Analysis of the present situation as the question of where are we now, Starbucks has a high reputation for their company and products that have a great market value. However in the crisis with limited budgeting, Planning will need to take place on reforming on the objectives and positioning. Starbucks has taken the opportunity by utilized the advantages of social media for their reorganization. With the objectives of create high engagement and create positive relationship with their customers through actively engaging in social media that provide the advantages on cost effective and efficiency. In addition Starbucks has formed a social media team to take control, monitor and evaluate the process and development of the us ed of social media. Started on October 2008, Starbucks began to actively engaging in social media, official Starbuck Facebook fan page is one of the major social networking sites for the company. Starbucks started to connect in to the cyber world of social media, and that is speak for itself in the  number of Fans the company is engaging with. Facebook as a social media platform that has incorporates with different types of videos, content, and has active interactive activities with the fans. 2.1 Social media marketing strategy Starbucks has a small social media team with only six people; however they obtained a high level of engagement with their consumer in social media. (ENGAGEMENTdb , 2009) On the other hand Starbucks has building social media as a key part in their marketing mix, a stable platform for advertising and promotions. At the same time it creates a centre of attention to attract web traffic to the social networking site fan page with heavy advertising and promotion activities. Alexandra Wheeler, Director of Digital Strategy of Starbucks stated that, We live in the physical world with thousands of natural touch points, so when we laid out the vision for our social strategy, it felt like home for the brand. Its about the relationships we form with our customers. (ENGAGEMENTdb , 2009) Figure 7 Social media marketing source: www.awarenessnetworks.com The social media marketing strategies that Starbucks are using include special offers, coupons, sapling and discounts distributed through Facebook, because Facebook is the main social networking site for Starbucks. Promotion event on Facebook by Starbucks with the title of Free Pastry Day promotion allowing executively for Facebook fans of Starbucks to print out the online version of coupons for complimentary item with a drink purchase. Through this particular event in July 2009 it further added 200,000 fans just in a week. In the same year, by promoting the launch of the branded ice cream, Starbucks offering coupons for free pints via the Facebook application. Besides, Starbucks also used Facebook to promote a Taste Challenge together with the launch of Starbucks VIA instant coffee, offering participants with a free cup of Starbucks coffee will be given on their next purchase and discount of USD 1 with the VIA instant coffee purchase. (Mark Walsh, mediapost.com, 2010) Figure 8 Push-Pull continuum for digital marketing Source: anovagrp.com Figure 9 Push and Pull promotion strategy. Source: Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong  2009 Throughout the examples from above it is clearly presented that marketing theory of push and pull strategy are being used. A push strategy involves pushing the product of information through marketing channels to final consumers (Kotler and Gary Armstrong, 2009). Two types of push strategies were being used, first the push promotion strategy with the online version of coupons and discount on product purchase, flowing by push marketing with the channel by using Facebook social networking site to transmit the message across their audiences. Objective of the promotion is to gain immediate sales at the same time promote the fan page through the social networking side. Starbucks successful created high level of attention throughout the product promotion on Facebook with encouraging results. Based on a Razorfish study (2009) that generated a conclusion that traditional direct marketing practices for example offering discount and promotion are the keys on building engagement on social networking sites moderately focusing on to create deeper relationship and connection to a brand (Razorfish, 2009). CEO of social media management firm ViTrue, Mr. Reggie Bradford illustrious that Starbucks has the advantage on take in charge and managing all the Starbucks stores, provide an easier way to run standardized marketing programs that team up with Facebook. More significantly, Starbucks well manage with various types of updates that content, and interesting that includes blog articles and videos sharing that cover all aspects of coffee that includes how to grow coffee beans, pieces of writing about Starbucks and Starbucks employees. The tone and pitch of the updates is informative and relaxed, in addition even on their own product updates are kept in a wide-range that enough to remain interesting, for example, by offering and introduction up reviews of new music and books to be displace and for sale in their cafes. Therefore, the well managed and quality status update content has achieved a very engaged fan base, with every update on the social networking site will receive thousands of feedbacks and comments. 2.2 Success Following by reviewing the successful social media marketing strategies that used by Starbucks and the way the coffee giant fully utilized the opportunities of social media to create an interactive and interesting business approve. The level of engagement of a brand in social media will bring different level of success. As Howard Schultz, chairman and CEO of Starbucks said Were not just selling a cup of coffee, we are providing an experience (Business Week 18 November 1991). This implies that customers satisfaction is given top priority. In order to do so Starbucks serve coffee with great taste and quality. Not only quality the treatment of customer is excellent and the variety of beverages served is  good (Kotha Glassman 2003). Based on the principle of providing an experience to the customers social media is a latest and most advance technology in communicate that can be personalize between the company and their customers. Coffee house giant Starbucks continue to develop its soc ial media operations in attempt to extend its relationship with its end users. The reason for advertisers using social media is to go where consumers are and to provide a valuable and meaningful brand experience, according to Alexandra Wheeler. Although the challenges of the economic downturn, Starbucks posted profits of $242m in Q4 2009, as revenues rose 4%, to  £1.7 billion, mostly as a result of improved Starbucks store sales (Financial Time.com, 2010). From the research paper on the title of related to how Social Networks Improve e-Commerce, stated that creativity is an extremely important elements when come to approaching a social network (Gayatri, Christo Bryce, Kevin, and Ben Y. Zhao, 2009). Few of the successful principles are value need to be added to the interaction and use the naturally viral nature of community instead of forcing the marketing message through. On social network it have to communicate with people before selling, traditional ad campaigns and promotions should not be forced on the potential customers immediately (Social Media Optimization, 2007). Social network is all about building a community around the brands and the products, promoting, sharing and discussion (Brown, 2009). Get involved in the social network regularly, completely understand the content and focused to the topic is being said amongst the social network community, and the targeted audience before engaging (SocialMediaOptimization, 2007). Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks stated that the global economic recession has very much shaken consumer confidence and retailers which wish to stay relevant in the future will have no choice but to recognize and respond to this new reality and to continue and to accelerate. Starbucks current direction with continue to improve, innovate, and focus on strengthening the relationship with their customers. (The Seattle Times, January 28, 2009). Figure 10 Engagement Scores of Top 100 Global Brands. Source : ENGAGEMENTdb, 2009 Figure 11 Engagement Varies by industry, Source : ENGAGEMENTdb , 2009 In the year 2008 Starbucks promoted the worlds biggest Facebook ad campaign that including Facebook members in 16 that will be served ads for a Starbucks (RED) charity sing along of The Beatles All You Need Is Love when user log in. Starbucks undertook the biggest global Facebook ad campaign the purpose is to raise awareness of the project, which was a celebration of its partnership with (RED), the charity with the aim to fights Aids in Africa (Jennifer Whitehead, brandrepublic.com, 04 December 2009). This particular campaign has invited people to take part in stores which Starbucks donated a percentage of the cost of each selected product sold. The social media campaign that carries out this initiative received as the most viral impression ever; result of millions of people aware of the Facebook digital invitation which given respond (Wheeler, 2009). On Starbucks promotion Free Pastry Day where pastry will be give away for free with every drink purchased, resulting nearly 600,000 people who expressed an interest in that particular promotion on the social networking site Facebook. On the other social networking site Twitter also generated good respond with a similar promotion event. Besides on the public social networking sites Starbucks also has its own platform My Starbucks Ideas on online community that allows customers and staff to put together suggestion to the company, in August 2008 total of 75,000 of suggestions have been recorded (AdWeek, WARC, 2009). Based on the number of people involved has created a strong awareness outcome at the same time it had increase the sales at the period of time. The result on social media has the similarity outcome with the advertising objective that can be achieve through the social networking site. Starbucks persist as one of the brand that gains most popularity on Facebook, with sites now launched globally in 14 countries. In 2009 the consultancy company Altimeter Group, positioned Starbucks is of the brands make good use of the web properties, and Schultz stated that they would be integral to its operations going forward. The importance of our social media expertise continues to grow, and we evolve the conversation with our core customers, (Altimeter Group, 2010) Figure 12 Multi-step flow and personal influence model, (Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong  2009) Engaging with the millions of consumers through social media is a success. Multi-step flow is the extension of two step flow theory. A strong multi-step flow and personal influence model being involved in the process. Fill (2002) provides a clear description of the potency of word of mouth that can give a depth of credibility other form of communication cannot. Because of the nature of social media, the process of opinions and comments flow around in the social media, at the same time the social media management team will be able to monitor and provide instant reply. Starbucks brand, content and online vice president Chris Bruzzo, toldAdAge.com: Its like weve taken the version 1.0 of last year and now they are really doing it at scale and going to a lot more places where their customers already are and people are saying this is going to be a big year for social media and they are a microcosm of that. While last year it was a curiosity, this year its a core part of the program. (WARC, 2010). 2.3 Rewards This section will present the rewards that Starbucks gained throughout the Facebook campaign, based on the success factor that had been discuss on the above paragraph Starbucks also picked up a lot of benefits throughout the process. Financial performance correlates with engagement will determine the rewards that the company gains from the involvement in social media. Survey of Syncapse Consultancy Company, in an effort to gain understanding of the long term business value that generate by social network. The target research company in this survey is based on twenty most popular corporate users actively engaging in social network that includes Coca-Cola, Starbucks, McDonalds, Dove, Gillette, Nokia, Nike, Victorias Secret and Red Bull. The result found out that consumers who like a product in the Facebook feature were found to spend  £93 a year on the item in question, $71.84 more than the shoppers who have not performed the action (Syncapse, 2010). Starbucks is one of the brands th at scores at least 80% in the category of building empathy among their fans. Besides, the products of Starbucks scored over 90% associated with the feeling consumers that result in warm, gratified or happy. Fan value is cyclical and ever changing based on the ongoing marketing performance, (Syncapse, 2010). The result in the survey illustrate that long term brand value can be build by using the social network, independent social network campaign should be taken to increase the value of their company through their fan. Figure 13 Average value of Fan source: Syncapse 2010 Director of worldwide interactive marketing of Coca-cola Michael Donnelly acknowledged that end users perform activities of sharing information via using Facebook meaning that the fan-page of an organization is an additional way to promote and take immediate sharing information in the platform that the users are spending time with, based on the highly engagement platform it create a channel to listen and collect feedback s from consumer. The varies quick feedback that can be received from different methods for example photos, videos or status updates from the page and the message will rapidly share among their network (WARC, Brand Channel, 2009). Relationships are a form of organizational capital that provides value for the organization, the view that relationships are an enabler for resource exchange is well supported by relationship literature (Baxter Matear, 2004) The involvement of social media has became a importance role in achieving this aim, one of the Starbucks campaigns join together with Project Red to help promote fight AIDS in Africa, which was promoted using social media Facebook, where Starbucks has more than 5.5 million fans in end of 2009 that became the most popular brand second by Coca-cola and does not take long for Starbucks to achieved 10 million Facebook fan in July 2010. Schultz mentions that the effort of creating the world largest campaign ever on the Facebook social media platform is further strengthens Starbucks unique connection with their customers (Starbucks, 2010). Alexandra Wheeler stated that the campaign has became the most viral event in the history of Facebook and meant that this not only were trigger customers excited about the Starbucks at the same time the customer also came together on one day to accomplish something excellent. Take as a whole; she asserted that Facebook helps them get a pulse on the impor tant to their customers. The organization can have a direct communication dialog with their customers about the values and ideals that they gained and share the valuable experience with them. (Brand Channel, 2009) Figure 14 Engagement correlates to Financial Performance, source: ENGAGEMENTdb 2009 According to a report by ENGAGEMENTdb 2009 with the title of top 100 worlds most valuable brands, who is most engrage? In the report it divided brands in to four profiles with different levels of engagement, depending on the figure of channels and how intensely they are engaged in the brand. Starbucks fall in to the category of Mavens has been description as brands that are engaged in seven or more channels and have a greater than average engagement score. The brands are able to maintain a high level of engagement throughout multiple social media. The Mavens are not just a healthy strategy and enthusiastic teams focused on social media, but also make it a core part of their marketing strategy. Companies in this category will operate with a strong presence in social media. Company like Starbucks with deeply and widely engaged in social media outshine their competitors in term the performance in both revenue and profit by a large difference. Mavens group they have sustained strong reve nue and margin growth in spite of the current economy. (Figure 14) Further on with a strong engagement and multi-step flow and personal influence model it will develop on the principle of relational exchange theory. A brand relationship is being established, self-interest is best maximized by the returns available through cooperation in a relationship (Blau, 1964). In this approach, the analysis of interim relationships moves from the focal firm to the dyad or network level in an effort to understand interorganisational relationships (Cook Emerson, 1978; Bradach Eccles, 1989; Husted, 1994). There is interest in relationship quality that stems from trust and the high degree of certainty of predictable and obligatory behavior that leads to sales giving the seller integrity and the process a high degree of certainty (Crosby, Evans and Cowles, 1990). Based on a study, brands with more supporters and fans on Facebook more likely to involve in discussions, and could gain higher returns (Vitrue, 2010). According to chief product officer at Vitrue Michael Strutton stated that it is important to know that to build up a Facebook fan base will need consistent and well management. The learning process from customer can perform through social media. According to Bruzzo one of specialist members of staff at Starbucks stated that If you approach it as a customer relationship and as a multi-faceted human connection between Starbucks and customers, then we can have more than a conversation about products it can be a customer-insight channel and we can learn things from them. (Seattle PI, 2009).General Manager of advertising and customer engagement of Microsoft, Gayle Troberman, said social media offers a highly engaged audience who keen to know information about the company. She also mention that part of the social media strategy, is to focu s on honesty and authenticity, as well as attempting to respond to users as quickly as possible. (Seattle PI, Warc, 2009). 2.4 Risk On the above paragraphs it discuss about the success and reward of using social media of Starbucks, at the same time the risks of using social media need to take in consideration as well. As different social media evolved there will be multi channel for communications, at the same time communications professionals have a various options to connect with audiences. Worldwide audience can easily be reached with web 2.0, but the heady possibilities come with potential liabilities. Errors or mistakes in communication will be amplified. This is the reason why a lot of companies find the concept of social media as a risky media. The innovation of internet and World Wide Web have brought the world closer, and since social media are available on this technology there are different rules and regulations in different part of the world to protect the end user. From a international point of view for example regulations in the United Stated with the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive guards against false representation, Securities and Commission (SEC) and their Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg FD) which set to protect the use of the social media. Beside in the EU there are also protecting against the use of social media for example EU privacy rules that against collection of personal information and email addresses on website. Because social media is an open world for every user around the world, different rules and regulations in different part of the world might come into conflict when it operates in business related activities on social media. Further on move on to the use of social media internally under a company. The use of social media should be guardian by rules and regulations, managing social media a company is agreed to allow employees to wiring blog, tweet or post Facebook comments updates. In the past companies tried to control risk on social media by disallowing access to cyberspace, however that will not work with the current situation of the use of social media. Robert Stroud, international vice president of ISACA, said in a statement. Companies should embrace it, not block it. But they also need to empower their employees with knowledge to implement sound social media governance. (ISACA, 2010). This managing process is apparently with high risk than not permitting whatever thing out of the usual channels. In particular if the social media management teams include top level executives or the CEO, where regulations exist which govern the disclosure of information by publicly traded companies. According to a stu dy by Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA, 2010) employees who dabble in social networking both on and off the job could expose their companies to a variety of risks. Malware, brand hijacking, lack of content control, noncompliance with rules over recordkeeping, and unrealistic expectations of Internet performance were the top five social-media risks to businesses (ISACA, 2010). 2.5 Challenges All kind of social networking challenges will be face by organization. Following this section will discuss the possible challenges for organization that are using social media as part of their marketing strategy. Social media providing a lot of benefit to an organization, a well managed of the use of social media will bring great future for the company, at the same time the hard work of minimize the challenges will be the best practice for prevention. 8% of companies had terminated employees because of the usage carelessness of social media (Proofpoint, 2009) for example a very frequent causes that might happen including sharing confidential or sensitive information or data on a network channel. Figure 15 Challenges of social media, Source: 3.bp.blogspot.com According to David Arman, there are five possible challenges that every organization should be thinking ahead (Harvard Business review, 2010). The connection and linkage of social media cover almost every aspects and function of a business. All organizations will eventually grapple with integrating social into their entire ecosystem adopting either centralized, distributed or hybrid approaches (David Arman, 2010). The first challenge is regarding integration, because of the broad coverage of social media alongside the business, the decision of form up a specialize team to supervise the social media process is a judgment to be consider. Following by the second challenge governance, has been described as task to control and recognize both the contents produced for the public and also information that internal used around employees. Organization will need to keep attention on the internal contents among the company as well as set rules of engagement in the process how employees responding to the social media. The next challenge is that every organization have their own culture on the spectrum either being more transparent of the way they operate and collaborative or keep knowledge internally. Through using social media, organization can strengthen their company policy by managing customers and employees by using this channel, however it have to manage it intelligently and with purpose. The fourth challenge is related to the human resources of a company, emerge of social media business, rules and regulation of human resources will also need to keep up to date. Because of the fast moving and changeable technology set of rules and regulation will be an ongoing development process. At the same time organizations will need to train employees on the use of social technologies for work. The fifth challenge is on the measurement and return on investment. There will be difficulty on measuring the results on using social media, however it is measurable but to work out the financial definite will be a challenging task. 2.6 Conclusion After critical analysis on the achievements and threats, a conclusion can be made that the best practice to maximize on return and minimize risk of using social networking is to develop a well planed social media marketing strategy that cover a large part of the business. By minimizing the risk companies should develop social media policies and build up training meeting and classes to educate employees about the use of social media. The social media policies should includes personal use of social networks as part of the job description and also the personal use outside the work place. The use of visual in the social network is one of the way to stand out from the crow, visual communication is part of the design elements should be consider on how to communication with the audience by using design principles.

gatdream Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby - Casting Doubt Upon the American Dream :: Great Gatsby Essays

Casting Doubt Upon the American Dream in The Great Gatsby   The Great Gatsby' is set in the Jazz Age of America, the 1920s which have come to be seen as a bubble of extravagance and affluence which burst with the Wall Street Crash in 1929. Fitzgerald wrote the book in 1925, and in it he explores the fundamental hollowness which characterized the Age as he saw it, and casts doubt upon the very core of American national identity - the American Dream. The American Dream is a concept elegantly simple and yet peculiarly hard to define. At the root of it is the sense that America was created entirely separate from the Old World; the settlers had escaped from the feudal, fractious and somewhat ossified nations of Europe and been presented with a chance to start anew - "a fresh green breast of the new world." From this blank slate, those first idealistic settlers had created a society where "all men are created equal" and everyone had the chance to do the best for themselves as they could. Let us examine the passage from the Declaration of Independence from which that quote is taken: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed with certain inalienable rights, and that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." A fine and daring ideal in the 18th century, and at the heart of what America hoped that it stood for. 'The Great Gatsby' examines how this dream existed in the early 20th century and whether or not it had been accomplished. The American Dream permeated all of society, and so every one of the characters in the book is in some senses a reflection of the the world envisaged by Jefferson and Washington, and even before them by those first people fleeing to a new life in the New World. When we examine the characters in the book we can immediately see that they are not all born equal. Daisy and Tom, and to some extent Nick, are born into a rich, 'old money' environment which is symbolised in the novel by the established wealth of East Egg - a place of glittering "white palaces". Gatsby and the Wilsons are not 'old money', and despite Gatsby's wealth we get the impression throughout the book that through all his parties and social events he is trying to join that old clique, but never succeeding in elevating himself to the "distinguished secret society" of Tom and Daisy.

Waiting :: Papers

Waiting I'm ill again. It doesn't surprise me. Deja vu. I had to catch the bus from outside school, after persuading my teachers that I was going to a doctors appointment and not just skipping lessons. I have been waiting on these hard back plastic seats for nearly an hour just for one other doctor in this world to give me some antibiotics and send on my way home. This time I have come to the hospital because Mum thinks the infections getting serious, I cant notice the difference though. The hospital is a lot different from the doctors in town. I suppose its bound to be though. On the wall in front of me there is a big clock, and every minute I sit here it seems to go slower and slower. There are Doctors rushing everywhere. I don't really think I want to be a doctor. You have to be good at science. I'm not. A man has just walked in through the automatic sliding doors, which allow an artic wind to run right through my body. He is wearing big black boots with a headscarf tied loosely around the big matt of curly hair left messily on his head. Pulled tightly over his big fat stomach is a t-shirt saying Greenpeace on it. His trousers are black and come to just above his ankle. He reminds me a lot like the man that used to own the music shop in town. A young boy follows him. I think it must be his son as he too has curly hair and is wearing a similar t-shirt saying Greenpeace. He doesn't look at all happy. His arms are tightly folded and you can see he has been crying. I bet his Mums expecting a baby and he doesn't want it to be a girl. Yes I am right, they have just made their way towards the labour ward. They'll be waiting a long time in there. Every so often a policeman will walk past. They all look so bored, like me. I used to want to be a police lady, but not anymore.

The Hunchback Of Notre Dame :: essays research papers

A gem that has several very visible flaws; yet, with these flaws, "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" shines as the best from the Disney factory yet. For, at first, the company name and movie title didn't quite appear to sit well together. You don't marry the king of novel Gothic gloom (Mr. Victor Hugo) with one of the world's most beloved (if not biggest) animation companies and expect the usual world population to be at the reception; but expect even Mr. Walt Disney to pat himself on the shoulder blade (or what's left of it) for allowing a hideous hunchback to be transformed into a Gene Kelly-Incredible Hulk combo type of hero. This "hero" is Quasimodo (Tom Hulce), which by the way means half-formed. It's about his distorted education (whoever teaches the alphabet using abomination, blasphemy, condemnation, damnation and eternal damnation ?), his humiliation (being crowned the king of fools), his first love and his big, big heart. It's about how our outward appearances should not matter (sounds familiar?). It's about believing in yourself but not being self-righteous. And it's about reliving the magic of Oscar-nominated "Beauty and the Beast", directed by Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale (both, incidentally, were also responsible for "Hunchback".) Wise and Trousdale obviously had a vision that didn't exactly conform to your usual "and they lived happily ever after" type of fairy tale. They employed a lot of artistic license when rewriting the plot. It was, after all, a cartoon; but they didn't allow it to become an excuse to dissolve the poignancy and tragedy into nothingness. Quasimodo did not get the girl. Nobody exactly lived "happily ever after". There was an amazing amount of implicit blood and violence. All that with Quasimodo's unrestrained outburst near the end and the best animated celluloid representation of the kiss contribute to the real emotions that flowed from the characters. Talking about being real, the drawings in "Hunchback" were simply breathtaking. The two directors and chief artists actually made their way to the famed Notre Dame cathedral in Paris to experience first hand the magnificence and beauty of it. For ten whole days, they walked through, looked from, sat on, literally lived and breathed Notre Dame. The artists even "swatched" some dirt just to match the colour! The result was such artistry that even George Lucas and Steven Spielberg would have wanted to call their own. The scenes in the market place, the panoramic view of the steps of Notre Dame and beyond all left me gaping in wonder and sheer excitement that such representation could be possible through animation; it's all thanks to computer animation.

Man is like a fraction

Man Is like a fraction whose numerator Is what he Is and whose denominator is what he thinks. The greater the denominator, the lesser the fraction. † -Lev Tolstoy We should take note that in a fraction, as the denominator becomes larger, the value of the traction becomes lesser. Man is also like a traction as what Lev Tolstoy said in his quotation. Life Is full of choices, full of situations. Where sometimes all our way to run away is by pretending, Pretending is one way of escaping. In my life, I have met people who are pretentious. I don't understand why they are like that.Why o people appear to be something theyre not? Does it make them feel better about themselves or does It make them have something to hide behind? People feel that if they can lead a life that isnt their own and be pulled along by someone else they may be able to achieve better things. Therefore, hiding behind masks makes people lives a lot easier, they don't have to face up to doing something wrong. The ap pearance of being greater than you are has led to many unfortunate happening in the world around us. Nevertheless it shows us how appearing to be something you're not, can become your reality and even the world's reality.We need to be less influenced by the world around us. Reality is hard to find as people are working their way around It, forcing themselves to appear to be something they're not. If we feel that we can get ahead by doing this then we should realize that we will only get hurt. Let us not be a person who sees himself larger than who he really is. Iva Rhiana C. Santiago LG 4218 APOLLONIUS OF PERGA As what I have researched, Apollonius ot Perga was a Greek geometer and astronomer noted for his writings in the conic section. It was him who gave the ellipse. the parabola, and the hyperbola the names by which we know them.And these things are our lessons this term. The work of Apollonius of Perga has had such a great impact on the development of mathematics, that he is kno wn as â€Å"The Great Geometer†. In fact, in his book Conics he Introduces terms, such as parabola, ellipse, and hyperbola that are still used today. Apollonius also was an important person in founding Greek mathematical astronomy. He used geometrical models to explain planetary theory. He made a lot of contributions In his times that until now we are benefiting from them. We are still learning from them. He did his work very well.He was able to help many people nowadays even f he existed a long, long time ago. His contributions to mathematics helped many people to become very good like him. Mathematician like ‘Of2 Apolllonlus 0T Perga makes numerous contrl learn and it helped me a lot. Iva Rhiana C. Santiago 4218 The Importance Of Saving outlons. HIS conlcs Tor me were easy to For me, teenagers or children nowadays should learn how to save money since young. Saving money helps to lessen the heavy responsibility of our parents as what I have observed. We can also buy th eir own items without asking money from our parents.Saving money also helps us to be more independent. Although I did not complete the required number of weeks I have to deposit, I think I was only able to deposit four times out of eight weeks, I am lucky to learn a lesson from this. I can benefit from saving money at young age. I realized that after high school, college is expensive and then â€Å"real† life begins, with expenses such as food and rent. If I can hold onto a good portion of the money I earned as a teen, going to college and buying a house will be much easier. The earlier I will begin saving, the more time the money has to grow.

Re: Week 6

Assignment 3 Prepare the EFE matrix for KKD Prepare the EFE matrix for Sturbucks Compare KKD, Dunkin Doughnuts and Starbucks STURBUCKS DUNKIN DOUGHNUTS What kind of nutrition is important? The above chart compared calories. For some people, they want less fat or sugar. Usually the items that are lower in fat tend to be higher in sugar and carbohydrates (and vise versa). Some of these foods offer no other nutritional value like fiber and protein. You need to assess what you are most concerned with. If your goal is to eat less than you burn each day, calories is your bottom line.As you can see, Starbucks is not necessarily healthier than D&D, despite strategic marketing. Of all the comparisons done, Starbucks only came out on top three times. You might think that a â€Å"smoothie† is better than a â€Å"coolatta† , but the facts state otherwise. Menu Diversity between Dunkin and Sturbucks Dunkin' is the winner simply because many of its Dunkin' Donut stores are also paire d with Baskin-Robbins ice cream stores, since Dunkin' group also owns the Baskin-Robbins chain. But Starbucks' has improved its menu as of late, and it is reaching to an entirely demographic than ice cream and donuts.So while Dunkin' may win on diversity of product because of Baskin-Robbins, Starbucks probably still has the most redeeming menu from a profitability and sustainability perspective. COMPARING DUNKIN DONUTS AND KRISPY KREMES 1. Overall Customer Service Dunkin Donuts – Honestly the staff at the Dunkin Donuts location always leaves a lot to be desired, the greetings do not exist, the appreciation for choosing them to do business with does not exist and most importantly the sense of urgency to resolve customer complaints does not exist either.This is based on interaction with at least five different Dunkin Donuts employees. Krispy Kremes I have only dealt with one associate each of the three times I have been to the local Krispy Kremes location. The first occassion t he associate lacked any excitement, no initial greeting in the door and no â€Å"Thanks† at the end of the trip. The second time I went in (a week later), the employee was no different than the first time I was in there, hardly anything to brag about.On my third visit the Krispy Kremes employee was a little more friendly than the two previous times, again nothing to jump up and down about. 2. In Stock Condition Dunkin Donuts – If you have not had a chance to read my â€Å"Dunkin Donuts? Doubt it† post I suggest that you do, that will clearly explain my previous six trips to Dunkin Donuts. To put it simply, they never have any donuts when we go there (see the picture below). I actuallt stopped at Dunkin Donuts today to get two Ice Coffee’s and two Fruit Blasts or whatever they are called, it’s like some icey thing.When I placed my order for two of those, the response I received was â€Å"We don’t have that† and that’s it. Safe t o say this particular Dunkin Donuts, just doesn’t have it. Krispy Kremes – Krispy Kremes not only had the donuts we wanted, but they had an abundance of them as well as donuts we didn’t want. The display case was packed with donuts. I have also ordered the Krispy Kremes version of a Berry Fruit Blast as well, which was in stock every single time we ordered it over the three week period. 3. Freshness of DonutsDunkin Donuts – You know it’s been so long since I have actually had a Dunkin Donuts â€Å"Donut† due to the fact that they never have the donuts we want in stock when we go. What I do remember about my recent trips to Dunkin Donuts that actually ended with me getting donuts is that the donuts were hardly fresh when we got them. Krispy Kremes – If I were a Dunkin Donuts franchise manager or corporate associate I would be highly concerned, hands down Krispy Kremes donuts are more fresh when you get them.In addition we ordered three times the amount of donuts on each visit to Krispy Kremes than we did at Dunkin Donuts when we did actually get donuts. 4. Coffee Taste Dunkin Donuts – It’s probably a good time for Dunkin Donuts to change their name to Dunkin Coffee, their donut product is a wreck at my local location, Im not sure about others. if it were not for the coffee at Dunkin Donuts it’s safe to say I would never go to a Dunkin Donuts again. Now if Dunkin Donuts could get their staff to understand â€Å"Double Cream and Double Sugar† I would be sold on going there just for the coffee when I am in the mood.It’s just too bad Double Cream and Double sugar at my local Dunkin Donuts is more like 1/2 cream 1/2 sugar. Krispy Kremes – I have tried on all three occassions to get myself to believe that I was just as satisfied with the Krispey Kremes Ice Coffee’s as I am with the Dunkin Donuts Ice Coffee’s, sadly thats just not true. The Krispy kremes coffeeâ₠¬â„¢s are smaller, when packed with ice it really doesn’t give you a decent amount of coffee. The taste also does not come close to Dunkin Donuts Ice Coffee or Hot coffee drinks.