Nisa Critique

While there have been many rich descriptions of the life of the !Kung of south central Africa, the account given by Marjorie Shostak in her analysis of the life of a woman of this clan appears to be a fascinating account at best but not entirely scholarly since it flouts major ethnographic guidelines.Introduction:The !Kung people are a tribe of hunter-gatherers who live as bushmen in the   southwestern part of Africa,   in isolated areas of Botswana (where they make up only 3 percent of the population), Angola, and Namibia, deep in the Kalahari desert. After gaining fluency in the language of the! Kung, Shostak returned to Botswana in 1975 for six months to complete the life histories of several women in the tribe.Marjorie Shostak manages to takes us into the oldest culture on earth by living with a hunter/gatherer tribe in southern Africa and manages to give us the details of there way of life through an interview with them, of course, before their way of life was further damage d by careless government administration policies. She reflexively collects interviews and anecdotes that enable her to explain their morals, architecture, tribal politics, spirituality, games, marriage rituals and subsistence lifestyle, giving us one of the best looks at how human society began all those thousands of years ago. Also read: My Problem With Her Anger SummaryOne of its major flaws especially for those with a strong understanding of anthropology is the fact that she concentrates her analysis from the report of one dominant character named NISA [the name is fictitious]. This results in a narrative of an idiosyncratic life, one that, as the !Kung woman Nisa once told Shostak, †I will break open the story and tell you what is there. Then, like the others that have fallen out into the sand, I will finish with it, and the wind will take it away†; seems to imply that each woman’s life is unique and may not reflect the truth about women’s lives in the general community of the !Kung clan, even though it truly attempts to mirror the conventions and culture of the group as well.However, from the book we are able to determine Nisa’s character as a woman who is forthcoming in personality, and unabashed and expressive in her native tongue, although she also comes across as de manding and manipulative in behavior. This presented to Shostak great problems in gaining an objective analysis, a fact that generated early ambivalent feelings towards Nisa which as she reports, did not endear Nisa to her any bit. Although Shostak tried to interview more than a dozen other women of all ages; inviting recall, asking pertinent questions and seeking bio-graphical highlights she seems to finally have settled her choice on Nisa as informant because of her   particularly forceful, colorful language, and generally truthful replies.Secondly, although   the justification of Nisa as informant is reliable, it only serves to foster the concept of authenticity in ethnographic representation. The importance of authenticity in ethnographic representation is still in doubt as portrayed in James Clifford’s   review of Edward Said's Orientalism, Clifford asks, â€Å"Should criticism work to counter sets of culturally produced images like Orientalism with more â€Å"au thentic† or more â€Å"human† representations? Or, if criticism must struggle against the procedures of representation itself, how is it to begin?’The general consensus seems to be that authenticity is itself a representation which can be misused. For example, the purpose of the poet or novelist is creative self-expression. For the creative writer, representation is the vehicle for expression; the creative writer consciously chooses representations as representations. The writer of nonfiction, however, typically focuses on the substance of what she wishes to communicate, and often fails to realize that she uses representations when communicating her ideas hence giving rise to rhetoric. Rhetoric is the characteristic manner by which a text's language and organization convinces its readers of the truth, but is itself not truth.Thirdly is the issue of dialogue versus monologue in ethnographic presentation. It is very apparent that Shostak’s   focus moves aw ay from the central position of the ethnographer (implicit in ethnographic realism and explicit in Dumont’s example of the self-reflexive approach in his book The Headman and I: Ambiguity and Ambivalencein the Fieldworking Experience), and brings the importance of native informants to the foreground. â€Å"The other† is given the opportunity, albeit limited, to represent herself in Shostak's text. Shostak's text is also significant because it attempts to incorporate dialogue as a structural feature.Shostak demonstrates the potential usefulness of multiple voices although her ultimate control over the text makes it a monologue. The monological aspect is repeated within the text itself: there is no true discourse between Shostak's and Nisa's portions of the text, only alternating monologues.   However, according to Stephen A. Tyler this presents a problem in ethnographic presentation, one that is solved in a different approach which he suggest when he says, â€Å"A po st-modern ethnography is a cooperatively evolved text consisting of fragments of discourse intended to evoke in the minds of both reader and writer an emergent fantasy of a possible world of commonsense reality, and thus to provoke an aesthetic integration that will have a therapeutic effect.†Tyler's emphasizes the dialogical nature of ethnography [alternating monologues as is the case in Shostak’s work], were the discourse is between reader and writer rather than between the writer and the culture he studies. Tyler maintains that the experience which matters is not the fieldwork but the writing of the ethnography; the ethnographer does not attempt to represent another culture to the reader, but rather to evoke in the reader a recollection of his own culture. Ethnography is a way to make the familiar unfamiliar and then familiar again.Lastly is the authors choice of topics that evolve around the issue f sex and violence maybe justifiable if viewed from the perspective t hat narrative is highly charged with sex because sex is important in !Kung life. From Shostak’s   very provocative findings, such as a much more sexually egalitarian sensibility than our own, we see that in the !Kung culture, marriages are largely monogamous, with some sanction for a second wife; lovers are accepted for both husbands and wives, but discretion is made more important expressly because discovery can lead to mayhem and even murder. However, Shostak seems to get this information largely from Nisa’s own personal account.Personal accounts are   rarely written without particular motivation. Every account has some agenda. Scholars suggest that we need to always consider why the subject feels it is important to share his or her life either privately or with an anonymous public. This is because the narrator’s motivation will account for what parts of a life are discussed and what details are filtered out. What motivated the author of the personal accou nt?Whether written or oral, a personal account is a subjective, selective account of a life recorded for a specific purpose, ranging from personal catharsis to revisionist history. There are many motivations for the creation of personal accounts, including a focus on the self, on others, or on posterity. In this particular account, were Shostak seems to have solicited the story, rather than finding the account, the scholar’s reason for seeking the personal account will probably color the nature of the questions asked.In this case, the personal account will likely reflect the scholar’s interests more than those of the subject. Hence, it can be postulated that Shostak’s interests in giving Nisa’s account was to highlight the issue of women and not entirely for ethnographic purposes. This can be evidenced by the fact that in her time all the way to date, women’s stories in the West have been increasingly considered valid testimonies, along with accoun ts by people of color and those outside the highest strata of socio-political influence. Therefore, although it is impossible to view history from a wholly objective position, it is still helpful to be aware of such biases.In conclusion, I believe that what Shostak should have done was to strive to consider other sources that could offer insight about the !Kung people, such as official documents (marriage, divorce, and birth records, public notices), archived newspapers (human interest stories, political coverage), and glossy magazines (regional and national views reflecting social trends of the time, setting a context). Although her learning of the language is a great achievement enabling her to establish effective communication with the subject, it serves to tell us only a fragment of the whole picture.This fact takes on a deeper gravity when we consider that the question of truth may have many answers. Nisa’s portrayal of her life is indeed accurate in her own mind. Yet we know that, after all, memory is selective: people’s responses to experiences vary and people’s memories of experiences change with time and influence. Events that happen in a person’s life between lived experiences and recording those events can shape their telling, which only confirms that truth may have many answers.Reference:THE PROBLEM OF ETHNOGRAPHIC REPRESENTATION http://home.pacbell.net/nicnic/ethnographic.html#14Shostak, Marjorie, Nisa: The Life and Words of a!Kung Woman. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press (1981). Nisa Critique Introduction:The Kung people are a tribe of hunter-gatherers who live as bushmen in the   southwestern part of Africa,   in isolated areas of Botswana (where they make up only 3 percent of the population), Angola, and Namibia, deep in the Kalahari desert. After gaining fluency in the language of the! Kung, Shostak returned to Botswana in 1975 for six months to complete the life histories of several women in the tribe.Marjorie Shostak manages to takes us into the oldest culture on earth by living with a hunter/gatherer tribe in southern Africa and manages to give us the details of there way of life through an interview with them, of course, before their way of life was further damaged by careless government administration policies. She reflexively collects interviews and anecdotes that enable her to explain their morals, architecture, tribal politics, spirituality, games, marriage rituals and subsistence lifestyle, giving us one of the best looks at how human society began all tho se thousands of years ago.One of its major flaws especially for those with a strong understanding of anthropology is the fact that she concentrates her analysis from the report of one dominant character named NISA [the name is fictitious]. This results in a narrative of an idiosyncratic life, one that, as the !Kung woman Nisa once told Shostak, †I will break open the story and tell you what is there. Then, like the others that have fallen out into the sand, I will finish with it, and the wind will take it away†; seems to imply that each woman’s life is unique and may not reflect the truth about women’s lives in the general community of the !Kung clan, even though it truly attempts to mirror the conventions and culture of the group as well.However, from the book we are able to determine Nisa’s character as a woman who is forthcoming in personality, and unabashed and expressive in her native tongue, although she also comes across as demanding and manip ulative in behavior. This presented to Shostak great problems in gaining an objective analysis, a fact that generated early ambivalent feelings towards Nisa which as she reports, did not endear Nisa to her any bit. Although Shostak tried to interview more than a dozen other women of all ages; inviting recall, asking pertinent questions and seeking bio-graphical highlights she seems to finally have settled her choice on Nisa as informant because of her   particularly forceful, colorful language, and generally truthful replies.Secondly, although   the justification of Nisa as informant is reliable, it only serves to foster the concept of authenticity in ethnographic representation. The importance of authenticity in ethnographic representation is still in doubt as portrayed in James Clifford’s   review of Edward Said's Orientalism, Clifford asks, â€Å"Should criticism work to counter sets of culturally produced images like Orientalism with more â€Å"authentic† or more â€Å"human† representations?Or, if criticism must struggle against the procedures of representation itself, how is it to begin?’ The general consensus seems to be that authenticity is itself a representation which can be misused. For example, the purpose of the poet or novelist is creative self-expression. For the creative writer, representation is the vehicle for expression; the creative writer consciously chooses representations as representations. The writer of nonfiction, however, typically focuses on the substance of what she wishes to communicate, and often fails to realize that she uses representations when communicating her ideas hence giving rise to rhetoric. Rhetoric is the characteristic manner by which a text's language and organization convinces its readers of the truth, but is itself not truth.Thirdly is the issue of dialogue versus monologue in ethnographic presentation. It is very apparent that Shostak’s   focus moves away from the centr al position of the ethnographer (implicit in ethnographic realism and explicit in Dumont’s example of the self-reflexive approach in his book The Headman and I: Ambiguity and Ambivalencein the Fieldworking Experience), and brings the importance of native informants to the foreground. â€Å"The other† is given the opportunity, albeit limited, to represent herself in Shostak's text. Shostak's text is also significant because it attempts to incorporate dialogue as a structural feature. Shostak demonstrates the potential usefulness of multiple voices although her ultimate control over the text makes it a monologue.The monological aspect is repeated within the text itself: there is no true discourse between Shostak's and Nisa's portions of the text, only alternating monologues.   However, according to Stephen A. Tyler this presents a problem in ethnographic presentation, one that is solved in a different approach which he suggest when he says, â€Å"A post-modern ethnogr aphy is a cooperatively evolved text consisting of fragments of discourse intended to evoke in the minds of both reader and writer an emergent fantasy of a possible world of commonsense reality, and thus to provoke an aesthetic integration that will have a therapeutic effect.† Tyler's emphasizes the dialogical nature of ethnography [alternating monologues as is the case in Shostak’s work], were the discourse is between reader and writer rather than between the writer and the culture he studies. Tyler maintains that the experience which matters is not the fieldwork but the writing of the ethnography; the ethnographer does not attempt to represent another culture to the reader, but rather to evoke in the reader a recollection of his own culture. Ethnography is a way to make the familiar unfamiliar and then familiar again.Lastly is the authors choice of topics that evolve around the issue f sex and violence maybe justifiable if viewed from the perspective that narrative is highly charged with sex because sex is important in !Kung life. From Shostak’s   very provocative findings, such as a much more sexually egalitarian sensibility than our own, we see that in the !Kung culture, marriages are largely monogamous, with some sanction for a second wife; lovers are accepted for both husbands and wives, but discretion is made more important expressly because discovery can lead to mayhem and even murder. However, Shostak seems to get this information largely from Nisa’s own personal account. Personal accounts are   rarely written without particular motivation.Every account has some agenda. Scholars suggest that we need to always consider why the subject feels it is important to share his or her life either privately or with an anonymous public. This is because the narrator’s motivation will account for what parts of a life are discussed and what details are filtered out. What motivated the author of the personal account? Whether writ ten or oral, a personal account is a subjective, selective account of a life recorded for a specific purpose, ranging from personal catharsis to revisionist history. There are many motivations for the creation of personal accounts, including a focus on the self, on others, or on posterity.In this particular account, were Shostak seems to have solicited the story, rather than finding the account, the scholar’s reason for seeking the personal account will probably color the nature of the questions asked. In this case, the personal account will likely reflect the scholar’s interests more than those of the subject. Hence, it can be postulated that Shostak’s interests in giving Nisa’s account was to highlight the issue of women and not entirely for ethnographic purposes. This can be evidenced by the fact that in her time all the way to date, women’s stories in the West have been increasingly considered valid testimonies, along with accounts by people of color and those outside the highest strata of socio-political influence. Therefore, although it is impossible to view history from a wholly objective position, it is still helpful to be aware of such biases.In conclusion, I believe that what Shostak should have done was to strive to consider other sources that could offer insight about the !Kung people, such as official documents (marriage, divorce, and birth records, public notices), archived newspapers (human interest stories, political coverage), and glossy magazines (regional and national views reflecting social trends of the time, setting a context). Although her learning of the language is a great achievement enabling her to establish effective communication with the subject, it serves to tell us only a fragment of the whole picture. This fact takes on a deeper gravity when we consider that the question of truth may have many answers. Nisa’s portrayal of her life is indeed accurate in her own mind. Yet we know that, af ter all, memory is selective: people’s responses to experiences vary and people’s memories of experiences change with time and influence. Events that happen in a person’s life between lived experiences and recording those events can shape their telling, which only confirms that truth may have many answers.Reference:THE PROBLEM OF ETHNOGRAPHIC REPRESENTATION http://home.pacbell.net/nicnic/ethnographic.html#14Shostak, Marjorie, Nisa: The Life and Words of a!Kung Woman. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press (1981).

Black Codes Essay

The black codes were a another word for hate, and the reason I say this because the true meaning of The black codes is a law that stops the blacks from having freedom, and later on they would begin to Force them into owing or as I was taught debt. With legal prohibitions of slavery ordered by the Emancipation Proclamation, acts of state legislature, and eventually the Thirteenth Amendment, Southern states adopted new laws to regulate Black life. This was a very serious law for the blacks it was Mean and made them seem like they weren’t people just like they did the grandfather clause and I say This wasn’t a very good matter. This was like the grandfather clause the code is to watch the movement From theirs to the south some laws say black can’t hold guns and cant trade produce and they said this To want them back on the plantation. â€Å"The black codes were passed by the ex-confederate states after the civil war, the purpose of the Black codes were to keep freed slaves in a servitude state, to ensure cheap agricultural labor, and to Keep a white dominate position†. Yes I say they are right because through the research I found this was The one most popular it was well written it talks about cause it talks about what I said in the first Paragraph. Example; Arkansas passed a law prohibiting colored people to Immigrate to Arkansas Another example is Texas required railroad companies to have separate cars for Black and white people And my last example is Arkansas required separate schools for white and black People, they also made a Law called the vagrancy law which meant â€Å"Any person that a law enforcement Officer or judge deemed To be unemployed and not owning property could be arrested and charged as a Vagrancy†. -History. com Radical Republican Reconstruction efforts from 1866-1867, and passage of the Fourteenth Amendment and civil rights legislation, helped to greatly eliminate the Black codes. The Union victory in The Civil War may have given some 4 million slaves their freedom, but African Americans faced a new Onslaught of obstacles and injustices during the Reconstruction era (1865-1877). By late 1865, when the 13th Amendment officially outlawed the institution of slavery, the question of freed blacks’ status in the Postwar South was still very much unresolved. The Freedmen’s Bureau also helped the former slaves in the workplace. It tried to make sure that The former slaves received fair wages and freely choose their employers. The bureau created special The bureau created special Courts to settle disputes between black workers and their white Employers. It could also intervene in other cases that threatened the rights of freedmen. The South Carolina code included a contract form for black â€Å"servants† who agreed to work for white masters. The Form required that the wages and the Term of service be in writing. The contract had to be witnessed And then approved by a judge. Other Provisions of the code listed the rights and obligations of the Servant and master. Black servants had to Reside on the employer’s property, remain quiet and orderly, Work from sunup to sunset except on Sundays, and not leave the premises or receive visitors without the Master’s permission. Masters could moderately whip servants under 18 to discipline them. Whipping Older servants required a judge’s Order. Time lost due to illness would be deducted from the servant’s Wages. Servants who quit before the end date of their labor contract forfeited their wages and could be Arrested and returned to their Masters by a judge’s order. On the other hand, the law protected black Servants from being forced to do Unreasonable tasks. This is how the 1800’s were they were very mean, cruel and they never thought about anybody But there self and I think that the black codes is just a distraction from what they really and I say that They are all people the black the whites and all the other races it just took them long enough to realize That and I say that is very poorly of them because doesn’t matter what you look like or what you wear Or what your skin color is people are people and we all need to accept that. This is the reason why I Chose the black codes there is no other reason I chose it because people found out the truth that we are A Special in different ways and I like the way we get along to day without racism.

Comparing the marketing of Tescos and Audi Essay

For this task we have been asked to look at the ways two different businesses market their products and services the two businesses we have been asked to look at are Tesco & Audi. The first Tesco was opened in 1919 by a man called; Jack Cohen from that 1 store Tesco has grown in the market and now has 923 stores worldwide, Tesco is a supermarket that sells all kinds of household items such as food, clothes range, technology range, phone range furniture, toys and many more, Tesco has many different stores which make a lot of money every year. Tesco uses its brand to obtain new customers and also retain old customers because they are a reliable business that is well known by many of their customers. They are known for their cheap products and suitable prices which attract customers to come back and buy again, They obtain new customers by doing things like advertising and promoting their products and business on things like flyers, T.V, Internet, Comparison sites and a lot of other places, they also do things like club cards which allow customers to get some products for lower prices or free, this makes the customer want to come back and shop again because they like the way of service. We have been asked to pick one product from each business and discuss the marketing techniques between them, from Tesco I have chosen to do a Mobile phone, the target markets of this product is everyone, but almost everyone needs a mobile phone, the branding of the mobile phone will be different because if the phones are made from different companies their brands will be on them, Tesco will use adverts to promote the phone and get people interested so they will buy it, Tesco uses relationship marketing with phone brands such as Nokia, Samsung ECT as they sell their products in side their stores, The mobile phone has a large number of rival products as there are lots of different phone models to choose from and this particular phone might not get bought. An Ansoff matrix is a business strategy that businesses use to increase sales and improve their market, Tesco is developing new products in existing markets because they already have a market and they just need new products to sell in their market, for example if Tesco created a new product their brand phone they would sell it under their name in their stores. Tesco constantly uses the Ansoff matrix as they are always releasing new products, and selling them, sometimes Tesco would work on improving a market and sometimes they create completely new products, If Tesco release a new mobile phone they would be releasing a new product into a existing market which would be using the Ansoff matrix. Audi AG (Xetra: NSU) is a German manufacturer of a range of automobiles, from supermini to crossover SUVs in various body styles and price ranges that are marketed under the Audi brand. The company is headquartered in Ingolstadt, Germany, and has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Volkswagen AG since 1966, following a phased purchase of its predecessor, Auto Union, from its former owner, Daimler-Benz. Volkswagen re-launched the Audi brand with the 1965 introduction of the Audi F103 series. The company name is based on the surname of the founder August Horch, meaning listen — which, when translated into Latin, becomes Audi. Audi uses its brand to sell their products, Audi is a well known and trusted brand and people can buy from them with trust unlike smaller companies, customers know that they can trust Audi, because they have reliable cars that they sell and the public know these facts about the business so they trust the company and buy the car. We have been asked to pick one product to describe the marketing techniques they use, I have chosen to do the Audi RS4, the target of this car would be anyone who can drive and people who have money, The branding of this car would have the Audi Logo on it, Audi will use things like adverts to promote their product, advertising increases sales, Audi can use Relationship marketing with Car dealerships/shops which sell their cars, Audi has a lot of rivals due to there being many other car companies that are selling cars like them such as Mercedes, Bmw, ECT, so Audi will have to be better that the other companies and prove that they are the best car dealer on the market. An Ansoff matrix is a business strategy that businesses use to increase sales and improve their market; Audi is constantly creating new products in their existing markets, and sometimes creating new products for new markets, for example Audi would not start a new company to sell new products under, they would just make new products which would be cars and sell them under their current name which would be Audi. Audi constantly uses the Ansoff matrix as they are always making new cars and selling them, sometimes Audi would work on improving a market and sometimes they create completely new products, for example If Audi created a new car they would sell it under their brand name and this is using the Ansoff Matrix.

The Lost Symbol Prologue

House of the Temple 8:33 P.M. The secret is how to die. Since the beginning of time, the secret had always been how to die. The thirty-four-year-old initiate gazed down at the human skull cradled in his palms. The skull was hollow, like a bowl, filled with bloodred wine. Drink it, he told himself. You have nothing to fear. As was tradition, he had begun this journey adorned in the ritualistic garb of a medieval heretic being led to the gallows, his loose-fitting shirt gaping open to reveal his pale chest, his left pant leg rolled up to the knee, and his right sleeve rolled up to the elbow. Around his neck hung a heavy rope noose–a â€Å"cable-tow† as the brethren called it. Tonight, however, like the brethren bearing witness, he was dressed as a master. The assembly of brothers encircling him all were adorned in their full regalia of lambskin aprons, sashes, and white gloves. Around their necks hung ceremonial jewels that glistened like ghostly eyes in the muted light. Many of these men held powerful stations in life, and yet the initiate knew their worldly ranks meant nothing within these walls. Here all men were equals, sworn brothers sharing a mystical bond. As he surveyed the daunting assembly, the initiate wondered who on the outside would ever believe that this collection of men would assemble in one place . . . much less this place. The room looked like a holy sanctuary from the ancient world. The truth, however, was stranger still. I am just blocks away from the White House. This colossal edifice, located at 1733 Sixteenth Street NW in Washington, D.C., was a replica of a pre-Christian temple–the temple of King Mausolus, the original mausoleum . . . a place to be taken after death. Outside the main entrance, two seventeen-ton sphinxes guarded the bronze doors. The interior was an ornate labyrinth of ritualistic chambers, halls, sealed vaults, libraries, and even a hollow wall that held the remains of two human bodies. The initiate had been told every room in this building held a secret, and yet he knew no room held deeper secrets than the gigantic chamber in which he was currently kneeling with a skull cradled in his palms. The Temple Room. This room was a perfect square. And cavernous. The ceiling soared an astonishing one hundred feet overhead, supported by monolithic columns of green granite. A tiered gallery of dark Russian walnut seats with hand-tooled pigskin encircled the room. A thirty-three-foot-tall throne dominated the western wall, with a concealed pipe organ opposite it. The walls were a kaleidoscope of ancient symbols . . . Egyptian, Hebraic, astronomical, alchemical, and others yet unknown. Tonight, the Temple Room was lit by a series of precisely arranged candles. Their dim glow was aided only by a pale shaft of moonlight that filtered down through the expansive oculus in the ceiling and illuminated the room's most startling feature–an enormous altar hewn from a solid block of polished Belgian black marble, situated dead center of the square chamber. The secret is how to die, the initiate reminded himself. â€Å"It is time,† a voice whispered. The initiate let his gaze climb the distinguished white-robed figure standing before him. The Supreme Worshipful Master. The man, in his late fifties, was an American icon, well loved, robust, and incalculably wealthy. His once-dark hair was turning silver, and his famous visage reflected a lifetime of power and a vigorous intellect. â€Å"Take the oath,† the Worshipful Master said, his voice soft like falling snow. â€Å"Complete your journey.† The initiate's journey, like all such journeys, had begun at the first degree. On that night, in a ritual similar to this one, the Worshipful Master had blindfolded him with a velvet hoodwink and pressed a ceremonial dagger to his bare chest, demanding: â€Å"Do you seriously declare on your honor, uninfluenced by mercenary or any other unworthy motive, that you freely and voluntarily offer yourself as a candidate for the mysteries and privileges of this brotherhood?† â€Å"I do,† the initiate had lied. â€Å"Then let this be a sting to your consciousness,† the master had warned him, â€Å"as well as instant death should you ever betray the secrets to be imparted to you.† At the time, the initiate had felt no fear. They will never know my true purpose here. Tonight, however, he sensed a foreboding solemnity in the Temple Room, and his mind began replaying all the dire warnings he had been given on his journey, threats of terrible consequences if he ever shared the ancient secrets he was about to learn: Throat cut from ear to ear . . . tongue torn out by its roots . . . bowels taken out and burned . . . scattered to the four winds of heaven . . . heart plucked out and given to the beasts of the field– â€Å"Brother,† the gray-eyed master said, placing his left hand on the initiate's shoulder. â€Å"Take the final oath.† Steeling himself for the last step of his journey, the initiate shifted his muscular frame and turned his attention back to the skull cradled in his palms. The crimson wine looked almost black in the dim candlelight. The chamber had fallen deathly silent, and he could feel all of the witnesses watching him, waiting for him to take his final oath and join their elite ranks. Tonight, he thought, something is taking place within these walls that has never before occurred in the history of this brotherhood. Not once, in centuries. He knew it would be the spark . . . and it would give him unfathomable power. Energized, he drew a breath and spoke aloud the same words that countless men had spoken before him in countries all over the world. â€Å"May this wine I now drink become a deadly poison to me . . . should I ever knowingly or willfully violate my oath.† His words echoed in the hollow space. Then all was quiet. Steadying his hands, the initiate raised the skull to his mouth and felt his lips touch the dry bone. He closed his eyes and tipped the skull toward his mouth, drinking the wine in long, deep swallows. When the last drop was gone, he lowered the skull. For an instant, he thought he felt his lungs growing tight, and his heart began to pound wildly. My God, they know! Then, as quickly as it came, the feeling passed. A pleasant warmth began to stream through his body. The initiate exhaled, smiling inwardly as he gazed up at the unsuspecting gray-eyed man who had foolishly admitted him into this brotherhood's most secretive ranks. Soon you will lose everything you hold most dear.

Attaining organization Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 11000 words

Attaining organization - Dissertation Example The primary aim of this thesis is to identify the technical and team roles critical to the functioning of an outsourced software development team in company Y. Belbin's 9 team role analysis will be used to analyse the team roles (Belbin Associates, 2006, online). 1.2. Research Question Based on the primary aim, the secondary aim of this thesis is established in the framework of the primary research environment. It is stated as follows: What team skills are missing in an outsourced software development team in Company Y contracted by Company X I. Context This chapter provides a brief context for this thesis. First, the history of Belbin's 9 team role analysis is documented (Belbin Associates, 2006, online). The next section contains the justification for this study. The last section defines the terms used in this study. 2.0. The Origins of Belbin's 9 Team Role Analysis The concept of team role is steep in history and has taken on center stage in recent years when flatter flexible organisational structures (Drucker, 1992, p.95), worker empowerment and teamworking (Webb, 2003, online), and interdependence that is a main feature of the modern semi-automated work (Smith et al., 1994, p.33) are the trend. Amongst the various team role classifications, that of Belbin (Belbin Associates, 2006, online) has become famous due to the ease with which a team member's most intrinsic team roles are identified through administration of the Belbin Self-Perception Inventory (SPI) (Senior and Swailes, 1998, p.1). The Belbin Team Role Self-Perception Inventory (SPI) is a famous and widely used metrics for identifying an individual's team roles. Over a span of nine years, Meredith Belbin and a group of researchers based at Henley Management College,... The concept of team role is steep in history and has taken on center stage in recent years when flatter flexible organisational structures (Drucker, 1992, p.95), worker empowerment and teamworking (Webb, 2003, online), and interdependence that is the main feature of the modern semi-automated work (Smith et al., 1994, p.33) are the trends. Amongst the various team role classifications, that of Belbin (Belbin Associates, 2006, online) has become famous due to the ease with which a team member’s most intrinsic team roles are identified through administration of the Belbin Self-Perception Inventory (SPI) (Senior and Swailes, 1998, p.1). The Belbin Team-Role Self-Perception Inventory (SPI) is a famous and widely used metrics for identifying an individual’s team roles. Over a span of nine years, Meredith Belbin and a group of researchers based at Henley Management College, England, researched the behavior of managers from around the globe. Managers participating in the study were given a series of psychometric tests and assigned to teams of different compositions while they executed complicated management activities. Their main personality traits, intellectual patterns, and behaviors were evaluated during the activities. As time went by different groups of behavior were identified as underpinning the success of the teams. These were called â€Å"team roles†. The team roles can be categorized into three categories of action-oriented roles, namely the shaper, the implementer/worker, and the completer-finisher.

Advanced taxation Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Advanced taxation - Case Study Example Lord Bolsover is quite wrong in his thinking that in the event of his death,all his belongings will be divided equally between his wife and son.He is also wrong in assuming that the income and assets of the married coupe are added together for tax purposes. The fact that he has not made any will so far will make his successors liable for inheritance tax in the event of his death.Present taxation system charges Inheritance Tax on any estate worth over 300,000 (for Tax year 2007 -2008). The value of estate is arrived at by adding up the value of every thing one owns including the share in jointly owned properties. The amount of large gifts made during the last 7 years before death will also be subjected to inheritance tax.Up to the value of 300,000 the estate is covered under 'nil rate band' and no IH tax is payable. Any value over the 'nil rate band' becomes taxable at a rate of 40 percent. Inheritance tax is to be paid out before the money and belongings of the deceased can be distri buted according to his/her will.Based on the above premise unless some tax planning is not done immediately, Lord Bolsover's estate would be subjected to inheritance tax. The following are some of the ways in which the incidence of Lord Bolsover's estate to inheritance tax could be mitigated.The 'nil rate band' is an effective saving in the value of the estate which would otherwise be subjected to inheritance tax.... Annual Exemption of 3000 which can be carried forward for one tax year, Marriage gifts exemption of 5000 to each of the children, 2500 to each of the grand children and 1000 to anyone (these gifts are exempted subject to the condition that the gift is made before the wedding day) and exemption of small gifts made to anyone up to a value of 250 during the tax year. All these gift exemptions have the effect of reducing the value of the estate that may be subjected to inheritance tax. 1.2 Making Direct Gifts: This is another way of mitigating the incidence of the inheritance tax on the estate of Lord Bolsover. However for using this method of tax avoidance there are two hitches which Lord Bolsover has to consider: He should live at least for 7 years to make the gifts exempt from tax He cannot have access to the monies gifted by him on his own accord. The important point to note here is that any gift made directly or into an absolute trust over and above the exempt gift allowance will be deemed as 'Potentially Exempt Transfers (PET) for a period of 7 years and until this period of 7 years the person making the gifts should remain alive to make the gifts eligible for exemption from inheritance tax. However the law allows the charging of the inheritance tax pro-rata depending on the year of death after the gifts or transfers are made, subject to the nil rate band of 300,000. This method of taxing pro-rata is known as Taper Relief which reduces the tax incidence by 20 percent every year after an initial period of 3 years. That means the reduction of tax rate will start from the fourth year before death onwards. But there are several other considerations like the time at which Lord Bolsover wants the beneficiaries to get the gifts, change in the circumstances of the

Preparing to teach Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Preparing to teach - Essay Example (Brown G., & Atkins, M., 1988) First of all, I'd like to emphasize that activities in class much depend on planning, that's why it's so important to make all the necessary preparations for teaching to provide a strong and authoritative background for good educational results. The information provided was gathered with the help of analyzing quantitative and qualitative data of questionnaires and test results provided for students at the beginning and in the end of teaching process to study the results of teaching methods and their impact on group learning. Preparing for teaching a teacher needs to determine the group size. Generally, the shorter the task the smaller must be the group (those of six or less), but for better cooperating process the optimum number of people is from eight up to twelve, where there is a possibility to work in pairs and in groups of three. There is also a task for the instructor to select the group. Groups selected by the researchers tend to perform much better than the self-selected groups. Heterogeneous groups are generally better. The length of teaching process depends on the specific collaborative learning activity, but there is a need of time for a group to become cohesive. (Dechant, K., Marsick, V. J., and Kasl, E., 1993) So that I organized the group of twelve students to be able to work in small groups of two, three and four people, that also gives an opportunity to provide them with different types of tasks and make the process more interesting and useful one. Also I've selected the group members (6 boys and 6 girls to avoid the appearance of possible gender differential misunderstanding in the process of teaching and fulfillment the tasks. Then, me, as a teacher, arranged the room for students to face one another and so the teacher can walk up to each group. While structuring the task and positive interdependence among the students, I provided them with academic task explanation, and criteria for success explanation, pointed out a group goal for the students to be able to rely on one another, thus emphasizing the fact they need to establish good collaboration between one another, and that much is dependent on the inner relations of the group members. (Smith, K. A., 1996) That's why on the second preparatory stage the teacher is to think over the possibilities of conflicts appearance inside the group and provide the best practice of their outcomes. So this reason I've studied theoretical material on conflict management to structure the group in its best way; then - explained the task and common group goals for students to know what they are to aim at. While planning group structure, the teacher must choose between three main group types: informal, formal, and base. Informal groups can be created in short term for solving some problems, have little structure, can have new group member with each class day, and is mostly useful during lectures, because it provides a quick check on student comprehension. Next type, which is formal group, requires more planning as to the size and composition of the group, because it has greater structure; has a specific purpose, and the same group members throughout its existence. Base groups, on the contrary, serve a broader purpose. They meet regularly, require planning as to the size and composition, have a constant membership and a specific purpose to complete. The teacher here should provide support, encouragement, and