Cross-Culture Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Cross-Culture Management - Essay Example In modern business environment, multinational enterprises (MNEs) need to manage cultural diversity while expanding business in different countries (Zhang, 2009). In order to explore true benefits of globalization, companies need adjust team dynamics, organizational structure and organizational environment in context to cross cultural elements (Jamal, 2005). Consideration of research works of Cullen (2002) and Dong and Liu (2010) reveals the fact companies need to manage cross cultural elements in dynamic as well as responsive manner in order ensure success for all of its strategic business units. While expanding business internationally, multinational enterprises (MNEs) and domestic companies can avail certain benefits such as decreasing business risk by diversifying business portfolio, accessing larger customer base, accessing the source of reverse innovation, fuelling innovation through cross country knowledge transfer and others (Lysonski and Durvasula, 2013; Derlega et al., 2002; Friedman, Chi and Liu, 2006). In similar context, company selected by this research paper is also planning to expand its international operation in countries like China, Brazil, and Nigeria. Home country of the company is UK and most of the managers as well as employees of the company have become habituated with British culture. In such context, while expanding business in countries like China, Nigeria and Brazil, the company will bind to face challenges regarding difference in cultural orientation of these countries from UK based culture. While working in managerial position in HR department of the mentioned UK based company.

Criminal Justice Agency Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Criminal Justice Agency - Essay Example It shall also discuss the role of the lawyer in assisting victims of crime or individuals who have been charged or convicted with crime. Keywords: Federal Public Defender, lawyer, attorney, criminal justice agency, lawyering Federal Public Defender Organization I. Introduction â€Å"The Federal Public Defender is appointed by the Ninth Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals to serve a term of four years. All employees of the Federal Public Defender are employed by the judicial branch of the U.S. Government. The Office of the Federal Public Defender for the Central District of California is the largest federal public defender agency in the United States. The Central District of California covers seven counties which include Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura, with a population of over 19 million people. They have offices located in Los Angeles, Santa Ana and Riverside. The main office is located in the Little Tokyo sectio n of downtown Los Angeles with branch offices in Riverside and Santa Ana California. The office has over 240 employees, including 92 attorneys, 26 paralegals, 38 investigators and more than 85 supporting staff members. The Office supports two units namely, the Trial Unit and the Capital Habeas Unit. The attorneys in our Trial Unit are appointed by the court to represent those persons charged with federal offenses who cannot afford to retain their own attorney† (Federal Public). Significance of the Agency I chose the office of the Federal Public Defender because I believe in their cause. They help out poor and indigent individuals who cannot afford the services of a lawyer. They represent people who are wrongly charged for offenses that they did not commit, or victims of crime. I have a high regard for lawyers who fight for the causes of the clients even if they do not earn much profit from practicing the profession. I want to contribute in improving the criminal justice system of our country by helping these individuals who are deprived of good legal services. There should be no distinction or discrimination between paying clients and non-paying clients. This is in consonance to the equal protection clause by upholding every person’s right to a counsel. I have a high regard for the objective of this organization in â€Å"ensuring equal justice for all†. Qualifications â€Å"A Federal Public Defender Organization shall consist of one or more full-time salaried attorneys. The Organization shall be supervised by a Federal Public Defender appointed by the Court of Appeals of the Circuit, after receiving recommendations from the district court or courts to be served. The Federal Public Defender shall be appointed for a term of four (4) years, unless removed by the court of appeals for incompetency, misconduct in his office until his successor is appointed, or until one year after expiration of such defender’s term, whichever is earlierâ €  (United States Code, 2006). â€Å"The compensation of the Federal Public Defender shall be fixed by the court of appeals of the circuit at a rate not to exceed the compensation received by the United States attorney for the district where representation is furnished, or if two

Everything You Need to Know About Kenya Essay Example for Free

Everything You Need to Know About Kenya Essay Kenya is a country in the continent of Africa, on the Indian Ocean coast of East Africa. This country has land on both sides of the equator. This report is going to tell you all about this fascinating country. Jambo (Hello), and we can begin our safari (journey). Jambo and safari are Kiswahili words, one of the languages of Kenya. Kenya is about two times the size of Nevada. Its slightly smaller than Texas and slightly larger than California, our 2nd and 3rd largest states respectively. The countries that border Kenya are Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Tanzania, and Uganda. Kenya is not landlocked because the Indian Ocean borders Kenya to its right. Kenya is in both the northern and eastern hemispheres. Some major landforms in Kenya include the Kenyan Highlands, Mt. Kenya, the Great Rift Valley, Mau Escarpment, and Mt. Marsabit. The highest elevation is Mount Kenya at 17,057 feet, which is also one of the tallest in Africa. The capital of Kenya is Nairobi. The distance from Nairobi (the capital of Kenya) to Washington D.C. is 7,548 miles. The geography of Kenya supplies some advantages. One area that displays this is the highlands. The highlands provide Kenya with one of the best agricultural regions in Africa. There is rich soil and fertile ground. There is plentiful rainfall and mild climate perfect for farming. High altitude is also great for growing coffee and tea. Kenya is the 4th largest tea producer in the world. Farming provides jobs to the people that live there. Exporting crops such as coffee and tea help provide money in the country. The one and only type of natural vegetation in Kenya is tropical grassland. They have no active volcanoes, but a few centuries ago Mt. Kenya was a volcano. The distance from Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, to the equator is approximately 216 miles. The climate of Kenya is varied. However, overall, the one-month it rains the  most in Kenya is in April when they get 6.3 inches. The average temperature in January is about 68 degrees while in July its 63 degrees. The many climates in Kenya include tropical wet, tropical wet and dry, arid, and semiarid. Arid is a dry region and receives approximately 5 inches of rain per year. In the summer Kenya gets .6 inches of rain and in the winter receives .1 inches. The temperature in the summer is 81 degrees Fahrenheit and the winter about 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Semiarid is considered a dry climate type. Summers average 79 degrees Fahrenheit and in the winter averages 51 degrees Fahrenheit. The yearly rainfall is 10 inches in the summer 3.4 and .2 in the winter. Tropical wet and dry is considered a tropical climate. Its hot all year, averaging 79 degrees all year. It receives about 50 inches of rainfall per year with 10 inches in the summer and .2 inches in the winter. I will now tell you about the history of Kenya before European exploration. Early tribal groups have started to settle in Kenya as far back as 2000 BC. The main reason tribes came here was for the rich, fertile ground, which would be good for farming. Both the highlands and the Rift Valley provided this in southern Kenya. The first migrants to arrive were pastoral nomads from Ethiopia who were in search of fertile ground, which they could use to graze their flocks. They were soon forced to leave and go into central Tanzania because of the climate changes over the centuries and water had begun to be scarce. The Yaaku, or Eastern Cushites, came 1,000 years later and settled in central Kenya. It seems that the Yaaku had been the leader and many more tribes came as the followers and by 100 AD there has been nearly 1,400 pastoral communities in the Rift Valley region. Next, I will tell you about the people of Kenya. The population of Kenya is 31,138,735 people. There are 2,310,000 people living in Nairobi. The population  density is 139 people per square miles in Kenya. Kenya is rural in most  areas, but urban in the capital. The official language of Kenya is English and Kiswahili (Swahili). The major ethnic group of Kenya is Kikuyu, which makes up 22% of the population. The major religion of Kenya is Protestant. 45% of the people follow the Protestant religion. The literacy rate in Kenya is 78.1% overall. Males are 86.3% literate, and women are 70% literate. Many areas lack good education. The life expectancy for women is 48 while the men are expected to life to 46. The population trend is growing greatly at 1.15% per year. One major illness that Kenyans suffer greatly from is HIV/AIDS. I will now tell you about the economy. The major type of economic activity is agriculture including herding and farming. Approximately 75-80% of the working population are in agriculture. It is a primary activity. The main agricultural product is tea. Kenya relies on coffee, tea, and flowers as their limited amount of cash crops. Although they have areas for farming, due to the large population and climate and weather problems, Kenya suffers with both starvation and famine. Some of their leading exports include coffee, tea, and flowers. They have a trade deficit with 3.1 million dollars imported and 1.8 million dollars exported. The major trading partners with Kenya are UK, Tanzania, and Uganda. The major imports Kenya receives are machinery and transportation equipment, petroleum products, motor vehicles, iron and steel, resins, and plastics. The per capita GDP is $1,000 per person. The major natural resource is hydroelectric power. Other natural resources include gold, limestone, s oda ash, salt barites, garnets, and rubies. The currency is called a Kenyan Schilling. A US dollar is worth 77 Kenyan Schillings. I will now tell you about the politics and government of Kenya. The type of government in Kenya is a republic. Recently, the government has not changed. The current leader of Kenya is President Mwal Kibaki. The date Kenya was granted its independence was on December 12th, 1963. The country got its name when Europeans mispronounced the name Kikuyu (what Kenya was then called) for Kenya. The same occurred with the name for Mt. Kenya. There have been no recent civil wars. The ambassador to the US is Yusuf Abdulraham. The name of the major political party is the Forum for the Restoration of Democracy also known as FORD. The international organizations Kenya is a  part of include the UN (The United Nations), IMF (International Monetary Fund), WB (World Bank), OAU (Organization of African Unity), and ISO (International Organization of Standardization). The flag of Kenya has many meanings. The shield represents the pride and tradition of Kenya. The black represents the people. The red represents the blood. Green represents the fertile ground. Finally, the white represents peace. I feel that Kenya is still in the developing stage. Much of the area is rural, with an increasing population, particularly in and around the capital. They have many citizens with HIV AIDS, and have many more suffering from starvation. One strength that Kenya has is that they get 40 inches of rainfall per year. That makes it good for farming, in the areas that they can farm. Another strength is the high altitude and Great Rift Valley that not only allows tea and coffee to grow, but it offers more jobs, which is important with a high population density country like Kenya to have. I think that Kenya will not improve in the future unless they reduce the incidence of Aids and eliminate starvation. Due to limited education, lack of a cure for Aids, and weather conditions that cannot be controlled, the future does not look very promising for Kenya.

Influence On World Cultures Cultural Studies Essay

Influence On World Cultures Cultural Studies Essay In this essay I will determine the extent of globalization regarding its influence on world cultures. I will analyse cultural homogenization, cultural polarization and cultural hybridization theories. This will enable me to determine the impact and influence that globalization is having on cultures and whether a homogenising or a polarizing effect or both are occurring. To understand the theories of cultural evolution I will look at examples where cultural polarization, homogenisation and hybridisation are occurring and I will define whether processes are actually happening and what their influence is on cultures. In order to understand the actual process of Globalization I will give various definitions of the concept that will enable me to interpret globalization within a cultural sphere. It is important to note that cultures have interacted from the beginning of time, this has created mixes, clashes and new cultures. Cultures are therefore in constant evolution and often contain both conservative and liberal values within them and the way that they are interpreted by people. The rising interest on globalization recently has brought up the topic of cultural homogenization and polarization. These processes have gained importance in recent times as there has been an increased level of interconnectedness between states and cultures. Because the world is more interconnected now than ever before, there is a growing importance on the processes brought on by globalization and in this paper I am going to determine what these processes are and how they shape and influence cultures. Globalization Globalization is a very complex term. It is used very broadly by economists, sociologists and politicians to explain the mechanisms that are leading to a more and more interconnected world.   Globalization refers to all those processes by which the peoples of the world are incorporated into a single world society, global society.(Albrow, 1990: 9). My own definition of globalization is the process of liberalisation of the markets, values and ideas, powered by the increased interconnectedness of the whole globe culturally, economically and politically. Ritzer, in the book Modern Sociological Theory describes globalization as a Spread of worldwide practices, relations, consciousness and organization of social life arguing that almost everyone worldwide has been affected by the impacts of globalization. The importance of globalization is highlighted by the increased power and popularity (either negative or positive) that international global organisations such as the international monetary fund (IMF) and the world trade organisation (WTO) have gained. Also private multinational organizations have hugely benefited from global expansion and globalization process as they have become more flexible and manageable to reach almost every part of the world. Attributed outcomes of globalization are either homogeneity with the spread and diffusion of similar behaviours and practices and hybridisation where cultural mixes occur, giving rise to new varieties of cultures. It is believed that a process which is against globalization is occurring, this is described as polarization and it describes a cultural split between states which embrace globalization and those who resist it. In order to further define globalization I will describe the more specific term suitable to my analysis : Cultural Globalization Cultural Globalization is the increasingly occurring process of global conformity in peoples behaviours and needs. Cultural Imperialism is a theory which describes the dominance and influence that a culture has on other cultures. Examples such as the European states colonization of Americas continent can be used to show how European cultural values have been spread to dominate other cultures. Contemporary cultural globalization focused its attention on the influence and dominance of cultural values and identities from Americanized/Westernized culture to other cultures. Homogenization This is a theory which looks at the impact of globalization worldwide, it is linked to the influence of a major culture which spreads to other cultures by promoting values, behaviours and commodities which come from a main dominating culture. Westernization is a process of homogenization which originates from north America, also called McDonalization, or Americanization. It is a process where mechanisms are closely interconnected with the diffusion of the globalized market economy and multinational organizations which promote particular cultural values and behaviours to other cultures, influencing them. Worldwide, consumer capitalism has been constructed by a uniform, standardised brand image. This involves the use of mass advertisement to create an image of a superior, high quality culture. This broadcasting of cultural values, norms and behaviours has attracted the attention and popularity of other cultures individuals. This promotion of a main culture is causing the homogenization of cultures. This is to say that many traditionally Western values and behaviours are in the contemporary world more and more imitated by non Western people.   When one is looking at the homogenization of culture globally, there are many positive aspects, such as the breaking down of barriers between societies and an increase in freedom. But the peculiarity of current global cultural homogenization is that it is impartially influenced by one area, North America, therefore more than a cultural homogenization, we can describe homogenization as an increase in the extent of one culture over others, this is the Western society influencing the rest. Therefore homogenization is not a neutral phenomenon. The mechanisms under which globalization runs have a built in character of inequality which is created between wealthy and poor countries. A form of resistance to this process of Western homogenization is created, minorities such as terrorist groups like Al Quaeda fight back against the globalized world in an attempt to save conservative tradition and cultural values. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 have shown how problems can arise when a culture is dominating and influencing other cultures. This highlights the issue and bring into question the process of homogenization which is impartially sided on the Western world side to influence and convert the rest of the world by imposing a fascination for western society, with its norms, behaviours, values and ultimately culture. There is as a result of homogenization a loss of regional pride and a loss of traditional cultures. It is argued by many that homogenization as it exists today is superficial. This means that instead of a complete form of cultural homogenization, only certain aspects are being spread. There are limitations to this cultural spread and influence on other cultures, apart from media and materialistic goods, not much else seems to travel through the barriers that cultures impose. . It leaves largely untouched the freedom and agency of the subjects in creating and changing culture, both as individuals and as groups. Cultural homogenization is happening everywhere. For example, Mexicos culture is being strongly influenced by the consumerist western capitalist culture. This has created a devaluation of Mexican products compared to U.S products. The explosion if foreign investment led to the expansion of North American brands such as McDonalds, Blockbusters, Subway etcà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ While Western cultural values grow in Mexico, they inhibit and weaken local Mexican tradition. A clear example of this is that most Mexicans discriminate against Native indigenous people. Western ideals have created a rejection of their historical Mexican traditional culture in exchange for a more Westernised view. Mexicans have become influenced by media, brands and ideas spread from western society to such an extent that they look up to this culture and want to be a part of it. This example shows that a major culture can influencing another culture and radically transforming it into a new culture that rejects its traditional past and seeks to embrace an idealised, constructed image of a culture.   The main factors which promote these cultural shift are foreign investment, the promotion of global media and rationalism. Rather than a uniform democratic world homogenisation, what we are experiencing is a Westernisation whose influences have become global and impartially distributed. This does not mean that consequences are negative or positive, this depends on ones point of view and to the importance given to past and culture. The interesting influence that cultural homogenization has created also shapes political and traditional values.   In Egypt for example western influences are making women marry at a later age, many are choosing to marry different men rather than those decided by the womans family as Egyptian traditional culture dictates. Therefore cultural homogenization serves as a means for liberalising politics and reduce traditionalism and conservatism. A positive view is given by Beck, he sees hope in the diminishing sovereignty of nation states and the emergence of trans national organizations and possibly a translational state as a result of the globalization and homogenization processes. We are already experiencing this shift of sovereignty, WTO and the IMF are gaining more and more power onto the individual state. Ultimately Ritzer argues about the globalization of nothing, this is a similar concept that describes how homogenization is influencing society by spreading values and ideals of one cultural origin. This process supports the idea of globalization as the imperialistic wants and needs of international actors such as corporations, states and organizations to expand their global reach in order to maximise their profits. By nothing Ritzer means the spread and divulgence of media and values that are practically empty in context and cultural values. This is a way of homogenization that is more compatible with other cultures, as the empty forms of continent are exported throughout the world, it is much easier for a foreign culture to assimilate empty or little content rather than forms of information and media which are rich in content. An example of this is the creation of shopping malls around the world, these unlike Westernised brands such as McDonalds are much more empty in content. An empty shopping mall can for example be filled with local shops and although promoting the homogenization of society, it also contributed to the Glocalization of society, this new concept means the co existence of the global and the local resulting in the Glocal. Another example of homogenization under the process of globalization of nothing is the worldwide reach and accessibility to credit cards, services provided by ATMs re believed to be non services as the costumer does all the work needed to obtain the service The next Theory is an opposing one, the polarization theory acknowledges the influences of cultural globalisation and cultural homogenization, recognising the cultural spread of western ideals. It differs from the homogenization theory by highlighting areas of cultural clashes and describing how cultures will have more conflicts than convergences in the future. Polarization Polarization is a term which is linked to Cultural diversity and opposition. It explains that there are definite cultural differences that are not affected by globalisation.   Cultures are different in their basic values and cultural clashes rather than cultural mixes are expected. An example used by many sociologists to back up this cultural diversity gap is the contrasting difference between the Islam world and the Western world. The Islamic attacks of 9/11 and the following Western retaliation in Afghanistan and Iraq are historic facts that highlight this crack and incompatibility between the West and Islam. Samuel Huntington in his book Clash of Civilizations (1996) described the existence of various major world civilisations: Sinic (Chinese), Japan, Hindu, Islamic, Orthodox, Western Europe, North America and Africa. Huntington believes that there are large differences between these cultures in the base of their philosophical assumptions. Huntington believes that cultures will clash in imposing their different religions and cultural values in a war described as McDonald vs. Jihad, this interesting view puts the consumerist western culture against the fundamentalist Islamic one.   Burke in his book the 9/11 wars concludes that al-Qaedas future is more likely to be that of a strong cult rather than a mass social movement.   Initial popularity of groups such as al Qaeda has diminished as a result of the mistargeted violence which often hurt the local supporters as well, making al Qaeda an unfriendly strong cult rather than a mass movement As they lost popularity, the terrorists relied more on coercion and in so doing made themselves even less popular. We have two main opposing ideologies, one, the western McWorld culture with its liberal market capitalism which connects us through cultural commodities, and on the other hand the conservative Islamic world which has in its values the liberation from capitalism and its inherited characteristics of greed and mass consumption. In my opinion there are more connections than clashes in contemporary world relations between the West and the Islamic world. Extremism is only a part of largely moderate Islamic countries. Huntington does not recognise the extent of the connections between West and East and seems to put Central Europe and North America in the same side, even if there are also major differences between these two continents. As David Myers puts it, Globalization is a complicated process that does not always lead to cultural homogenization, but can also produce hybrid or even polarized local cultures. Myers explained that although the world is more interlinked and globalized.   Phenomenons such as the homogenisation of movies, music, news, language and symbols are attributed to the strong influence and connectivity worldwide of Western society, particularly North America and Europe. This type of polarisation that we can observe is therefore not a uniform split, on one hand we have the process of globalisation that works in conjunction with homogenisation, therefore if there is a polarisation which goes against a term as global as globalisation, this polarisation is between all those globalised and those who resist it. The Hybridization Thesis When looking at how globalisation influences cultures not always we see a cultural homogenisation or a cultural polarisation, but more so we notice a transformation and evolutions in cultures as they clash, join and diversify. on the intercultural exchange and the incorporation of cultural elements from a variety of sources within particular cultural practices. This mixing of cultures can give rise to hybrid cultures which are new and differ from their original cultural values in an attempt to reshape and remodel culture to contemporary world. The hybridization theory has the concept of Glocalization at its core, it can be defined as the interpenetration of the global and the local resulting in unique outcomes in different geographic areas.(Ronald Robertson (2001) We find that Glocalization unlike Globalization describes how the local influences the global and reshapes the global influences on the local rendering the local globalised and at the same time unique in its local values. Glocalization reflects the growth of pluralism around the world, it gives importance to the local and individual actors in shaping the influences of the Globalization process to a local level. Hybridization is at odds with Globalization as it argues that there is an increased pluralism and diversity around the world. Globalization theory associates uniformity rather than plurality. An example of Hybridization could be a Chinese couple in Dublin, watching a French TV show in a Arab owned pub. This shows how cultural identities are mixing in a more and more interconnected world. Mass migration along with the increased communication between countries have speeded up the process of hybridization making glocalization a possible, perhaps more romantic scenario than globalization Conclusion It is important to note that when cultures clash, one does not remain and one disappears, but rather cultures clash, interact, fracture, breed and ultimately form new cultures distinct from the ingredients from which they were formed. This describes a process of constant transformation of cultures as they are influenced by other cultures. This theory seems to reveal that eventually as all cultures interact, a single globalised culture could rise, being influenced and shaped by all cultures in the world. If this was the case it is difficult to determine what type of culture this is, but it will have similar values present in neoliberalism, free markets, low levels of state sovereignty with the increased role of international actors and multinational organisations. Cultural values are subject to constant change and revision throughout the eras, but recently with the increased interdependence driven by science, technology and economics(Angell 1911) called the forces of modernity or globalisation there is a plausible view that a cultural homogenization may occur in a new unique single global culture or create an even sharper distinction between existing cultures to lead to a polarization of cultures in a globalised world. When looking at the three main theories we see how cultural homogenization is perhaps a form of cultural repression that involves one main cultures spreading of values, norms and behaviours to influence other cultures. This is not a pluralistic view as the influences between cultures are impartially sided on the Modern developed Western world. The main criticism of the Homogenization theory is perhaps its failure to see local influence as well as global ones. The hybridization theory is more flexible in this matter as it acknowledges the strong influence of the global, but it does not dismiss the importance of the local in interpreting and reshaping the global to create the Glocal. The Polarization theory also offers a scenario where because of the repressive nature of globalization on cultures, resistance is formed and a polarizing effect will create a split between cultures. This theory is hard to imagine as most of the world is already being influenced by globalization and the examples given by the polarization theory as opposing cultures to globalization are minorities which are often made up of extremist groups such as Al Quaeda. Huntington in Clash of civilization perhaps does not realise that there are less differences between the Western world and the Eastern Islamic one, an increasingly moderate Islam in which only a small part participates to extremist globalization resisting wars. The Hybridization theory offers a solution to the depressing reality shown by globalization and homogenization. Instead under the hybridization process, cultures expand and influence the local to give rise to the Glocal, this term acknowledges the cultural values inherited by the local and argues that it is the mix of the local and the global which will give rise to new sub-cultures. Perhaps the more flexible theory is the Hybridization theory, it is more flexible in its definitions and takes into account both the homogenization and the polarization theories. The future will see the rise of globalization which will give rise to many unique brands of cultures which are much more global in their value and identities.

There is No Escaping the Matrix Essay -- Video Games Virtual Reality

There is No Escaping the Matrix In the video game world anything is possible, and if your player dies you can always play again. The videogame industry is exploding in the market place; it's far from child's play and far from the days of pong. In the most recent issue of Entertainment Weekly (December 6, 2002) there is an article, Video Game Nation, discussing a new video game experience being touted as the wave of the future, The Real World meets The Matrix. In this virtual world called The Sims Online, people "live" in a virtual environment peopled by avatars created by thousands of other gamers. Neal Stephenson envisioned this future ten years prior with his release of Snow Crash. Stephenson describes a computer-generated "metaverse" where the logged-on could take on "avatars" hang out, and walk around, meet other "avatars" and perhaps fall in love. These artificial realities offer millions of people a chance to step out of our world and enter another dimension where anything can happen. The setting may be artif icial in nature, an electronic stream of data creates this artificial world for the player back home, but the interaction and the emotional appeal for the players are very real. When Neo is "reborn" we see where technology has taken us; it has enslaved us and uses us humans as a power source. Why not see that for what it is: a warning. We see computer gaming as nothing more than just escape. This is what technology offers people escape -- from this world, but is something being given up? Perhaps we should look at the nature of the beast and realize we are already enslaved. We are already there linked together in a Marxist fashion struggling for power, shelling out time and money to find solace inside the World Wide ... ...real Matrix that is this planet if we spend all our time on the "net?" Perhaps the connected quality can translate into a more informed public, but I doubt the young players of video games would bother to take notice. Stephenson's vision is accurate, we are becoming more connected yet live separate from each other; separated by tract housing, highways and the 'metaverse.' The future generation video gamers will experience more complicated and time-consuming games. This virtual gaming world offers them a place to explore beyond their world but at the same time keeps the players from this world. The love we have for machinery has only served to create the world we have today. There is no escaping the Matrix. Even at the end of the movie, Neo is still using the Matrix to communicate his intentions; we are still trapped inside the glass womb waiting to be set free.

The Importance Of The Human Genome Project Essay -- Science Genetics B

The Importance Of The Human Genome Project This is the outstanding achievement not only of our lifetime, but of human history. I say this, because the Human Genome Project has the potential to impact the life of every person on this planet. It is a giant resource that will change mankind, much like the printing press did. The famous words of Dr. James Watson resonated as a victory bell, signaling the successful completion of what many deemed the boldest undertaking in the history of biology: The Human Genome Project (2003). On the fiftieth anniversary of the day that forever changed science the day Watson and his colleague Francis Crick unraveled the secret of life, the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid the world was presented with another shocking discovery: the complete sequence of the human genome. Almost immediately, uproar swept throughout the science community and the world-at-large, as many believed that the solution to our problems had finally arrived the true secret of life the panacea that would dissipate the ominous clouds of disease and suffering. Yet, as often happens when a promising new idea is presented on tenuous grounds, the revelers had only heard a fraction of the entire story; their grand hopes were born primarily of imagination. But when all the celebratory confetti had cleared, there stood defiantly amidst all the hoopla voices of reason. Molecular anthropologist Jonathan Marks voice was one of these. In an excerpt from his literary work What It Means to be 98% Chimpanzee: Apes, People, and Their Genes, Marks undermines the importance of the Human Genome Project and our genes, advocating instead a more rational and moderate view of them. By exposing three of the Project s flaws, he hopes to convince... ...ealize that our genes are but one aspect of our history, that there are many other histories that are even more important it is a delusion to think that genomics in isolation will ever tell us what it means to be human (2001, paragraph 11). Indeed, everything is not solely in our genes. Works Cited Beckwith, J. (2002). Geneticists in society, society in genetics. In J. Alper (Ed.), The double-edged helix (pp. 39-57). Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. Lewontin, R.C. (1991). Causes and their effects. Biology as ideology: the doctrine of DNA (pp. 41-57). New York: HarperPerennial. Marks, J. (2002). The meaning of human variation. What it means to be 98% chimpanzee: apes, people, and their genes (pp. 88-95). Berkeley: University of California Press. Paabo, S. (2001). The human genome and our view of ourselves. Science Magazine 291, 1219-1220.

Beloved herself Essay

Introduction Toni Morrison is famed for her portrayal of African American life in her vivid novels, especially her portrayal of African American women and their place and position within society. Morrison was herself born in a working class family but worked hard and attended Howard University and then Cornell University. Although she faced discrimination and sexism throughout her early life, she overcame the obstacles and went on to become a successful editor before writing her first novel in 1970, The Bluest Eye. All of Morrison’s later novels earned her praise and a place within a white-dominated literary world. She used her influence to advance fellow African American writers, but it was Beloved that she became best known for. The novel, which is set in rural Ohio following the Civil War, contains multiple stories, voices, and shifts in time. The narrative swings back and forth in time to reveal the disturbing and complicated maternal experiences of Sethe, now a former slave living with her mother-in-law Baby Suggs and daughter Denver in a farmhouse on the outskirts of Cincinnati. While much of the novel takes place in this 1873 post-war setting, the past lies at the devastating core of the novel and impacts the present with vicious intensity. Indeed, as critic Valerie Smith points out, â€Å"The characters have been so profoundly affected by the experience of slavery that time cannot separate them from its horrors or undo its effects† (345). Certainly, this is the case for Sethe and Paul D, a former Sweet Home slave who comes to live with Sethe and Denver in Ohio after the war. Having endured unspeakable horrors during slavery, both find the past a constant, threatening presence in their lives. To a significant extent, Beloved embodies the past and serves as a disrupting force in the present. Moreover, with her multiple incarnations, Beloved also represents the complex, multi-layered treatment given to maternal experience in the novel. The first and most obvious level of the maternal in Beloved consists of the social and historical realities that lie beneath the text. Morrison acknowledges that the actual story of Margaret Garner of Ohio provides the historical substance of Beloved (qtd. in Naylor 206). According to various accounts, Garner, like Sethe, attempted to kill her children rather return them to slavery (Lerner 60-63). She succeeded in killing one child, whom Morrison transforms into the figure of Beloved herself. According to Morrison, â€Å"I just imagined the life of a dead girl which was the girl that Margaret Garner killed, the baby girl that she killed† (qtd. in Naylor 208). With Garner’s story then becoming Sethe’s, Morrison depicts both the cruel realities of motherhood under slavery and the interiority of such maternal experience. In this process, she exposes the â€Å"the silences in the generic first-person slave narratives† and crosses â€Å"the boundaries between fiction and history† (Grewal 156) Mothering, although about loving, caretaking, nurturing, and teaching, has the primary function of protection that stems from the request to survive. The survival includes that of self and of offspring, who will ensure the existence of future generations of families. Because survival of self is a necessary phase of survival of the offspring, with it come characteristics seemingly unmotherly. Although mothers are stereotypically viewed as soft, selfless, and abounding with patience, in fact, they have the capacity to be selfish, angry, and cruel in the process of being protective of their children. Mothers work to maintain life, or what they regard as right in terms of their definitions of life, regardless of the morality of their actions. And who determines the morality? Mothers are expected to be authoritative in their realm and are charged with the protection, at all costs, of the children of which they are the source or guardian. However, most of them don’t have certain rights or power to make the rules in society to carry out the protection. Therefore it is interesting to examine the social construction of mothering, both for mothers that chose motherhood, and for those upon whom motherhood was imposed; the dismantling of mothering stereotypes; and the way racial tragedies, culture, and survival define a mother’s role. Part of the issue, then, is that we place modern day standards on women from other eras. Another issue is raised as well. It is the question as to what determines how a mother will do her job. The answer includes nature and nurture, as well as, perhaps, the division of essentialism and social constructionism. According to essentialism, a mother has born qualities, nature determined, that manipulate her thought process and her decision-making process. Yet, these born qualities co-exist with environmental factors. Morrison therefore identifies de-essentializing critical strategies that still give a place to the slavery problem but revise the direction of this criticism. Nevertheless, the essentialist versus social constructionist theory still remains inherent to issues of motherhood. Eyer notes that â€Å"bonding is described as a maternal instinct†¦ designed to ensure survival† (69). Yet even the notion of maternal instinct can be questioned, especially if this mean it is to question biological determinism. Once again the issue of essentialism in motherhood is directly related to the social construction of what it is to be a â€Å"Good Mother† (Eyer 69). But who defines motherhood, survival and bonding? Is it possible that physical survival can be worse than death? Is it possible that the mother-child bond, so tightly fused, requires mothers to question the norm of the time, of the societal conditions? To protect may be interpreted as kill, as in Sethe’s case. Do these mothers have the obligation, whether essentialist or socially constructed mothers, to determine what is appropriate mothering in their situations? Perhaps these mothering characters absorb the language of biological determinism and actually use their biological differences as the source of their power, the source of their decisions and choices. The focus of this thesis, then, is the breakdown of the stereotype of mother as a result of racial and cultural oppressions in the most extreme circumstances, or after these extreme circumstances, illustrating that the cultures themselves are not always supportive of mothers and their inherent roles in society. The thesis also focuses on the crucial mothering characters in Toni Morrison’s Beloved, as well as offers relevant theoretical background that provides important perspectives on mothering in racial and cultural contexts. Morrison presents mothers who are very willing to be soft and hard, loving and cruel, moral and amoral for the sake of future generations. In Beloved, the crucial mothers are Sethe’s mother, Sethe, Baby Suggs, and Denver. Ella and Nan, though briefly addressed, are not considered central, as their mothering or othermothering capacities are demonstrated in a limited manner. The thesis would argue further, based upon the actions of Sethe that the socially constructed mother may refuse to act in full accordance with essentialism, for the purpose to do what they feel right, rather than the rules and morality based on social definitions. A lot of sources have been examined throughout this literary research study. A brief literature review on these sources is presented further. Deborah White in Ar’n’t I a Woman? attempts the mythology of the Southern mammy and other myths and challenges a richer, more multifaceted picture of the lives of African American women in slavery. Drawing on historical proof, including slave narratives and the diaries and autobiographies, in addition to the modern scholarship on the African American family, the author examines slave women’s routine, livelihood, female networks, and family roles. She finds power and ingenuity, but denies that female slaves played a dominant role in their families. Toni Morrison and Motherhood, by Andrea O’Reilly, offer a critical reading of motherhood and mothering complexly depicted in Beloved. The author intimately scrutinizes Morrison’s text and interviews as well as other appraisal of Morrison and feminism to theorize Black women’s daily experiences, which have been basically ignored by white feminists. Angelyn Mitchell in The Freedom to Remember studies current literary revisions of slavery in the United States by African American women writers. She claims that the modern studies have examined these works only from the perspective of victimization. Author transforms the conceptualization of these accounts in Beloved, focusing on the theme of freedom, not slavery, defining it as â€Å"liberatory narrative. † The Freedom to Remember shows how the liberatory narrative serves to emancipate its readers from the heritage of slavery in American culture: by facilitating a deeper dialogue of the problem and by making them new-fangled through elucidation and questioning. In the Toni Morrison’s Developing Class Consciousness, Doreatha Mbalia followed the growing of Morrison’s consciousness from her examination of racism in her early fiction, to her growing understanding of the nature of capitalism and the necessity for collective struggle in and Beloved. Diane Eyer in Motherguilt: How Our Culture Blames Mothers for What’s Wrong with Society, is convinced that the pseudo scientific conception of maternal â€Å"bond† is one of the ways the rules of mothering have been revised to restrain mothers’ interests in such possessions as work for income outside the home. Eyer is disturbed with the political and subjective twists that scientific investigation is given when attitudes about maternal nature and the principles of motherhood are questioned. Jan Furman in Toni Morrison’s Fiction, traces the persistent characters, subjects, and settings that represent Morrison’s literary vision and strike a well-known chords for Morrison’s readers. Showing that novelist sturdily supports the thought that the artist must beget and interpret culture, Furman discloses the Morrison ‘s contribution to the development and restatement of the American literary tenets through her depiction of the Black woman experience. As well, Furman scrutinizes Morrison’s distress with the threat of gender and racial stereotyping and with her appreciation for those who defy such boundaries. Pointing to the Morrison ‘s astonishing portrayals of human pain, survival, and triumph, Furman moves ahead of literary analysis to enlighten what she argues to be the crucial achievement of Morrison’s narrative: the presentation of the pathway to emotional independence and spiritual freedom. Trudier Harris in Fiction and Folklore: The Novels of Toni Morrison, shows how Morrison’s previous novels reveal interest to the folkloric elements in the form of narrator as storyteller; in the use of folk tales, funny stories, false notions, and other kinds of traditions; and in the emphasis on such â€Å"verbal† features as music. Jacqueline Jones’s tremendous study Labor of Love. Labor of Sorrow: Black Women, takes us far into the insinuations of the extensive social distinctions between the African American and the white experiences and practices in America. Jones’s book gets rid of several nasty stereotypes and obstinate myths, it is free of the bigotry and racism it portrays, and it shows old facts in new ways. This thesis has been divided into 5 parts, introduction, main body and conclusion. Main body is dived into three chapters. The first part explores the social construction of slavery motherhood. Theoretical background to the mothering aspects of Morrison’s novel is presented here briefly. Certain generalized assumptions are made about motherhood, mothering and othermothering. Although they cannot be accurate definitions for all mothers or all situations, they perhaps indicate the relation between essentialism and constructionism, in the identification of motherhood. This part looks at mothering under pressure and threat. The second part examines the roles and representations of motherhood in the novel, and Sethe’s role as a mother in particular. The role of breasts and breastmilk images are discussed and considered as a bond between mother and a child. Then, thesis, especially in terms of Sethe, distinguishes how mothers’ reactions to situations, though seemingly â€Å"animalistic† are, in fact, logically thought out, using human reasoning. If, according to society, the essential aspects of mothering are to be loving, caring, and nurturing, then it is through circumstances that a mother must determine how she can best be all these things, doing what is â€Å"best† for her child or children. In the third part, thesis is focused on the breakdown of the stereotype of mother as a result of racial and cultural oppressions in the most extreme circumstances, or in the aftermath of these extreme circumstances, illustrating that the cultures themselves are not always supportive of mothers and their inherent roles in society. The character of Baby Suggs has also been analyzed here thoroughly, showing how a destreotyping of black womanhood can contribute to a de-essentialized image of slavery. The thesis concludes, that the socially constructed mother who rejects the essential aspects of motherhood in order to do what she feels is â€Å"right,† rather than what is expected by society as a human mother. Thus, one must ascertain with respect to these culturally diverse mothers whether the essential aspects of being a mother transcend the socially constructed aspects of motherhood or not. Their desire and ultimate goal is still keeping their children and themselves alive. Indeed, the interpretation of mothering for each of the mothers makes the difference. Each woman identifies herself as a mother or othermother includes motherhood into her personal identity. A mother creates identity, or, if she does not create it, she nurtures it so that it may bloom and grow of its own accord. Considering social constructionism, this creation becomes exceedingly evident in the mothers and daughters in the novel, as well as in reality.