Finance and Accounting Assignment Math Problem Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Finance and Accounting Assignment - Math Problem Example Since in this case, the payment is done at the beginning of the period every time, hence it is a case of an immediate annuity as each yearly payment is allowable to compound for an additional year as compared to the normal annuity case. In this context, Future Value of Annuity = A [{(1+i) ^n -1} / i] (Finance Formulas., n.d.) Where, A= Annual payment, i= interest rate per year, n= number of periods As in this case, each annual payment is completed at the start of each period, the same is allowed to compound for one extra period and hence its future value would be the product of value of a matching normal annuity and (1+ interest rate). Future Value of Annuity Due = (1+i) * A [{(1+i)^n -1} / i ] (Finance Formulas., n.d.) The 65th birthday is the day the person wants to have $2 million in the savings account. It should also be kept in mind that a payment is made even on the last day i.e. on the 65th birthday. This last payment does not get a chance to be compounded and has to be simply added to the compounded value of the earlier made 35 payments. In the Future Value of Annuity Due formulae, it has to be noted that the last cash payment is made one year prior to the end of the 35th year. Keeping in mind that a payment will be made even on the last day of 35 year period, the formulae for calculating the required annual payment would be, Future Value, FV = (1+i) * A [{(1+i)^n -1} / i ] + A A = F/ [ {((1+i)^n-1)/i} * (1+i) +1] It is decided that the person needs $2 million at the end of 35 years period, so in this scenario the Future Value would be $2 million. In this case, FV= $2000000, i= 5%, n= 35 years. Putting these values in the above equation, Annual Payment, A = 20,868.91 = $ 20,870 (approx) Thus, the person has to put aside $ 20,869 (approx) each year to make sure that he has $ 2 million in the savings account on the 65th birthday. Problem 36 The person realizes that since the income would increase over the years it would be advisable to save less now and m ore in the later years. Thus, instead of putting the same amount aside, the person has altered his plans to let the amount to be set aside grow by 3% per year. This is a case of growing annuity which is similar to annuity as both ends after a certain period, however, growing annuity payments increase at a fixed constant rate unlike the annuity. It should be noted that since the first annual payment to the savings account is made today and continuing to do so on each birthday up to as well as including the 65th birthday, the number of periods would be 36. The formula for Future Value of Growing Annuity is, FV = A [{(1+i)^n – (1+g)^n } / (i-g) ] (Finance Formulas., n.d.) Where A= First payment, i= interest rate, g= growth rate, n= number of periods Hence, The First Payment, A = FV * [(i-g)/ {(1+i)^n – (1+g)^n }] Here, FV= $2000000, i = 5%, g = 3%, n = 36. Putting these values in the above equation, First Payment = 13,823.91 = $ 13,824 (approx) Thus, the person will have to put $ 13,824 (approx) into the savings account today and keep on increasing the succeeding payments at a growth rate of 3% per year in order to get $ 2 million in the savings account on the 65th birthday. References Finance Formulas. (n.d.). Future Value of Annuity. Retrieved July 14, 2011, from

CIS206 U3 Discussion Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

CIS206 U3 Discussion - Coursework Example Windows is made up of FAT and NTFS filesystems whereas Linux has a variety of files systems most that you can boot from the network. Its not easy to run out of memory in Linux because it has swap partition that is different from the partition containing data. The latter is not the case in Windows (Carpenter, 2012). In addition, Linux filesystems have a lot of recovery tools as compared to windows. There are many file systems in Linux including xfs, ext3, ext4, ext2, and jfs. These filesystems have different advantages and disadvantages thus the preference of one over the other. XFS has its data layout the same way it is in ext2, ext3, and ext4. However, it has a journal and consequently increments btree management of meta-data. The latter case leads to poor performance especially when in managing meta-data in files and directories. A positive outcome is read enactment. XFS also has an excellent performance when handling read and write at the same time. It is one of the filesystems that has been tested and fine-tuned over a long period. Further, it has incredible features that include xfs_fsr a defragmenter that is very simple to use (Hudson & Hudson, 2006). However, it is only possible to increase the size of the XFS but its not feasible to reduce that size. Thus as a precaution it is advisable to start with a smaller size. Ext4 evolves from ext3. It has the advantage of writing in a journal before updating the file system. It has made it good in recovering from crashes. It also adds wonderful management to adjacent data in files. Its performance in reading is good. Since it is very recent, a lot of tests are still underway. An administrator imposes a disk quota system on a Linux server so as to distribute the disk space among the users or groups according to their usage needs. It is also important in determining the number of directories and files that the

What Is Advertising Theory?

What Is Advertising Theory? We live in a consumerist society. That is a known fact. We are surrounded by ads that say Buy this now. You will save time and money or Do you want your skin to be softer? Try this body cream and you will have the much-wanted baby skin!. And even though some of us ignore the fact that we are, indeed, the victims of these carefully planned slogans which mingle with some eye-catching images, we, the readers of advertisements, interact with them and construct meaning from particular given elements the visual signs that represent something familiar with which readers associate, or the language of the ad that can be related, as Angela Goddard states, with any piece of literature, using fully the resources of language and inviting creative and subtle readings from their users. With this statement, Goddard makes the first approach in the long debate concerning whether ads can be seen as literature or not (1998: 15). In the process of trying to define the ad we stumble upon an inconvenient truth: we are unable to answer the question What is an ad? with anything but it tries to persuade us to buy something, and we do not take into consideration how it does that and by what means we are tricked and that the advertising industry means more than just selling a product. That is the reason why linguists became involved in this subject, as well as sociologists or sociolinguists, psychologists and even anthropologists. The study of advertising is, therefore, taken to another level: linguists came to study and analyze the verbal language and have come to a certain point in their research to say that we can talk about a genre of discourse in advertising; sociologists keep studying nowadays the impact ads have on society and how they contribute to the way people and readers of advertising interpret and build their world and their beliefs and the degree to which we define our identities under the influence of the omnipresent ads. Advertisements are not only a tool used to compel people on an economic territory, but also a kind of tool used to conquer people socially, psychologically and culturally. According to Davidson (1992: 6) studying advertising quickly and inevitably means studying how we read language, images, myths and how it is we build out of them our sense of who we are. From this perspective, ads not only help to sell things (White, 2000: 5), but their existence defines gender construction or stimulates the audience to develop their interest by creating new meanings. In the discussion about some theoretical issues of the advertisement, it must be mentioned that the ad always has an audience and we may call it addressee(s) while the addresser(s) is the one who sends the message (to buy a product, to apply to a service, to support some charity organization, etc) through language (slogans, short texts, etc) and visual tools (Goddard, 1998: 7) Throughout the evolution of advertising, defenders of its effects on society contradicted with those who claimed that ads have a dreadful effect on how one relates to a certain ad and constructs a world around a sold idea. It is partially true that advertisements may have a negative influence in unfolding gender stereotypes and shaping consumers lives on certain levels. A relevant example given by the non-believers is that ads continuously cultivate low self-esteem among young girls exposed to huge billboards showing a girl with a perfect body, perfect shiny hair and perfect skin, making them long for an idea of beauty which is not real at all and manipulating them to buy those products advertised to get that kind of hair or that kind of skin. With this, advertising theorists developed the idea that advertisements come to fill in a much bigger need of comfort, thus improving the corporate image of the company in order to create the icon of a trustworthy and benevolent firm (Brierley, 1995: 43). Its defenders used the argument that not all advertising is deceiving people into buying certain kinds of products, but some advertisements are based on social change and use true stories or/and shocking images to create a (positive) impact on society, aiming constantly at changing the way in which people behave: here we can mention the anti-smoking, healthy eating or anti-drug campaigns, which try to shock people by presenting statistics that show the death rate among smokers or drug users or aim to touch the emotional level by telling the stories of the ones in one of the mentioned situations, for successful advertising appeals both to the head and to the heart, to reason and emotions (Beatson, 1986: 265). Finally, advertising is defended as being a form of artistic expression (Leiss, 1997: 3) and contributing to a certain level to the education of the people, teaching them how to behave and what to think, feel, believe, fear and desire and what not to. (Kellner, 1995 : 5). Advertising must always be theorized according to the development of society towards this consumerist culture that exists nowadays. Therefore, one cannot talk about the impact of advertisements only economically. The evolution of the individual within the advertising culture must also be taken into consideration. In the historical evolution of advertising, one can identify the process of constructing gender identities in society. The most world-wide discussed example we can mention to sustain this idea is the evolution of the image of women in society, from the male supremacy towards the emancipation of women. The researchers in the advertising field stated that this evolution of gender identities must always be related to its context. That is the reason why a sexist ad from the 50s could easily cause laughter, because it no longer relates to the cultural context nowadays. Theorists of advertising conclude that another issue which we must take into consideration when analyzing an ad is the context. Linguists came and said that there is more to take into account when advertising analysts decide the context of the advertisement; according to Guy Cook (1992: 1) context includes also the following: substance, music and picture, paralanguage, situation, co-text, inter-text, participants and function, and, therefore, the correct approach in the study of ads must consider these features too. Cooks holistic definition of the ad (Cook, 1992: 2-6) comes as a breath of fresh air after decades in which specialists ignored the fact that the ad is an interaction of elements and linguists who analyzed the language of the advertisement ignored the picture which comes with it and which also contributes to the construction of meaning. What will an ad look like without the picture? I agree with Cooks idea that elements interact in an advertisement and that the first contact we have with the ad is through the visual tools and only after that do we stop and read what is written under the image. One cannot just simply leave behind the meaning of the picture, because it can be integrated in the sphere of the context. Let us take as example an ad in which two or more people who seem to have different nationalities are shaking hands and smiling gathered at a big table and maybe celebrating something. The readers, at first, interpret this visual information and they do not expect to read u nder this image something about a dreadful event, but they associate the people shaking hands with friendship, peace or something positive; and just after that do they come to read about a charity organization. As Cook states, we cannot just cut out important pieces from the ad, because the meaning of the entire campaign is based on how these elements interact with one another and thus sell the idea or the product. Linguists have launched different theories concerning the new type of discourse that ads use. Even though ads are seen as ephemeral discourses, one cannot ignore the long-lasting impact they have. The debate is taken further at the point of discussing whether ads can be seen as literature. So, can we answer the question What is advertising? by claiming that advertising is a new type of literature? Some specialists state that ads use creativity to stimulate people to read between the lines and find the hidden message and, of course, here they refer to the use of narrative techniques. But some of them also claim that it is impossible to put the label literature on any piece of text produced and that there are certain characteristics that a text must have to be literature. So, both parts have come to a consensus, to create a middle category for ads, and include them in the new sub-literary genres (Cook, 1992: Foreword). Ads still being considered the exception and debates still being ar gued, we cannot totally associate literature with ads. Whatever history the field of advertising has, there is an absolute truth about its changeability. Ads change over time, change being influenced by the social and cultural context. Since the 1900s advertising has changed massively, first because of the technological progress that enables ads to be delivered worldwide through radio, media or through the Internet, commercials being delivered in ways that were beyond belief decades ago; and, on the other hand, due to the changes undergone by society and its cultural values which ads have changed enormously. The public changed its identity, and advertising companies reinvented old ads and updated them to suite the new world. Here we can give the example of brands like Schweppes, Coca-Cola, Dove, and so on and so forth. If we have a look, for example, at a Dove ad from 1955, when the company made its debut, and a 2010 Dove ad we find the old one rather simple, plain we could say, because the cultural context has changed and, thus, the com pany nowadays sustains in its ads this battle between natural beauty and the artificial one, real women vs. supermodels. Cook identifies two levels at which one could observe the evident changes of the ads, one is at the lower level of substance, surroundings, mode and paralanguage, and also at the level of text (Cook, 1992:179); the lower level of substance has been partially covered before, but at the text level we can see a change in the accompanying discourses, because within 50 years there has been a shift from print ads accompanied by stories to very short discourses, nowadays, advertising companies claiming that they would rather use slogans that are short and easily remembered. This change happened mainly because people have nowadays a different life- style, and are not interested in reading a one page ad text or, they probably no longer have the time to do so. Ogilvy claims that we have lost the pleasure of reading advertisements, the pleasure of being captivated by the wit ty, tricky story of a product. Here is an example of the changes in the print ads of The Coca-Cola Company: Then Printed vintage Coca-Cola ad Now Ads as a discourse type Different theoretical approaches have generated a variety of definitions of the concept of discourse, but each of them had as a starting point the concept of language and how language is used in particular situations. Various texts are explored within the field of discourse analysis which is based on examining the way in which meanings are created throughout the text and studying language in its cultural form. Researchers have used the concept of text separate from the one of discourse, due to the common belief that when we talk about a text we strictly refer to the written language and that discourse is strictly limited to the spoken area of language. The modern theorists of language introduced the theory that the concept of text includes many other utterances and statements, so that we can put the label text on almost any magazine article, interview or conversation we stumble upon everyday. In Dresslers view, a text is a communicative event that must accomplish the following seven criteria: Cohesion representing the relationship between text and syntax and the use of phenomena such as ellipsis, anaphora, recurrence or conjunction. Coherence which has to do with the meaning of the text. Intentionality representing the attitude and purpose of the speaker or writer. Acceptability concerning the role of the reader or of the hearer to asses the relevance of the important information of a text. Informativity referring to the quality of the new information. Situationality representing the importance of the situation in which the text is produced. Intertextuality which refers to the fact that a text is related to some other discourses. Discourse analysts have always given a more important role to the external factors, believing that they play a significant part in communication. Cook sustains this idea that discourse analysis is not concerned with language alone (1992: 1) and makes the difference between text and context, the first having linguistic forms, separated from context for the purposes of analysis, and the second including, in the case of advertisements all of the following (Cook,1992: 4) : à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ · substance: the physical material of the text. à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ · music and pictures. à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ · paralanguage: referring to all the accompanying language (gestures, facial expression, or the size of the letters in writing). à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ · situation: the relations of objects and people in the surroundings of the text, as seen by the participants. à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ · co-text: which refers to the text which precedes or follows that under analysis, and which readers/listeners judge to belong to the same discourse. à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ · intertext: refers to the text which the readers/listeners perceive as belonging to other discourse, but which they associate with the text under consideration and which affects their interpretation. à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ · participants: each participant is at the same time a part of the context and an observer of it. Participants are usually described as senders, addressers, addressees and receivers. The sender of a message is not always the same as the addresser. Neither is the receiver always the addressee, the person for whom it is intended. à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ · function: which refers to what the text is intended to do by the senders and addressers, or perceived to do by the receivers and addressees. In order to establish the type of discourse advertisements use, we need to focus first on the field of discourse analysis and see how the ads have been perceived and received into the sphere. James Paul Gee states that the area of discourses can be seen as an institution and prompts us to imagine that we have a giant map. Each discourse is represented on the map like a country, but with movable boundaries that you can slide around a bit and we move the boundaries of the discourse areas on the map around in negotiation with others (Gee, 1999: 22). That is the reason why some types of discourses seem to be hybrids; because of this continuously interaction between them and the contestable boundaries. The only difference between one discourse and another is the grammar they use; grammar as referring to what linguists have named for a long time now as collocational patterns. In the advertising area these patterns signal the type of social language (informal/formal) used to achieve somethi ng like the customers attention and curiosity. Ads caught the attention of the linguists first because they were an evidence of the fact that language is always in context, and second because their discourse was complex, sometimes associated with that of literature, always holding out more to be analysed. According to Cook, describing advertising as a discourse is both more complete and more difficult than the approaches which separate out components of ads, underline a few, and ignore the rest (Cook, 1992: 2). This approach was summed up in Figure 1 by Cook who also believes that the ad is not a stable entity and that any change that occurs at any level, the whole discourse changes (Cook, 1992: 6): Figure 1 Interaction of elements in ads. There are many categories of discourses, or discourse types, which surround us at any time. Some of them are perceived as conversations, others as news bulletins, gossip, jokes, games, lessons, etc. The categories can be drawn further on, but they all merge and defy the same purpose. It is the cultural background that makes us to separate the discourses into units, to give those units names, and to assign them categories (Cook, 1992: 10). Discourse types also cover the area of non verbal communication, and here we can include the category of advertisements discourse. Ads usually have at least a representative slogan, and/or a text sustaining the product advertised. But this is not a general rule. The importance of these non verbal elements depends and varies from spectator to spectator. There are ads without language which have a greater impact through the image associated with what is being promoted, and there are ads in which language plays a subordinate part. When it comes to define what type of discourse ads embody, specialists find themselves in difficulty. It should not be that way, since we are surrounded by them and they represent a conspicuous discourse type in almost all contemporary societies. Cook is among the first linguists to overcame traditionally bias when it comes to define the ad. When trying to distinguish ads from other discourses, he states that people tend to put in the first place as the major qualifying facet the function of the ads. This is because they simply see the surface aim: to convince people to buy a certain product. But ads are not discourses simply related to that universally known purpose, they also are discourses which do not try to sell anything, but advocate a cause, or sustain a campaign. The ads can also be seen according to their intention to inform, misinform, warn or simply amuse the reader. If one considers that the only function is to persuade people, that person leaves a great amount of information aside. For example, if a non-smoker receives ads for cigarettes, or a person who has limited funds receives an ad for a brand-new, expensive, ecologically car, it is clear that the receiver of these ads will know that they are certainly not for him. But this does not mean that those ads do not say anything to the receiver. This is the reason why Cook understands the function from two different perspectives: the function which the sender intends the discourse to have may not be the same as the function it actually does have for the receiver (Cook, 1992: 14). The receiver can use the cigarette ad in a further discussion about smoking/non-smoking. These changes in the function of advertisements are due to the fact that, with ads, there is no single sender and receiver, because ads are not created by a single individual, neither are they the expression of one unique, universal message for the receivers. Advertising is a difficult genre to describe, because it is very wide and merges with other genres; it is Cooks idea of the interactional features in an ad. Every text, as Roland Barthes argued in one of his works, is a multidimensional space in which a variety of writings blend and clash (Barthes, 1977: 146). Donald Matheson studied further this premise and states that according to the intertextual theory, one must ask himself three kinds of questions about all ads and, indeed, all texts: The first one is about identity, and as Barthes noted, a writers work is about the point where that writer puts himself/herself to what has already been told. Matheson uses this theory at a more general level and states that by using language with a particular history, we are placing ourselves, the messages and meanings we produce, in a particular relation to society and culture (Matheson, 2005: 46). A second kind of question concerns the social struggle, which in Mathesons terms is the struggle to re-accent language that has been tied to particular interests before. One can analyze further on the social component of a particular sign to trace its impact and workings on the society. A third and final question refers to the role of media (such as advertising) in shaping shared repertories of intertexts in society. For example, when a passerby sees the following beer advertisement, he/she will immediately make the connection with the popular saying An apple a day, keeps the doctor away. Alluding to other texts is a valuable technique for advertisers. First, it requires a certain degree of cognitive work from consumers and, as rhetorical analysts argue, the more work people have to do to get a meaning, the further they go through the path a particular text is trying to lead them, the more active they collaboration with the texts meaning is. In the text ads carry with them, their receivers recognize previous ways of talking, especially ways which have been solidified over time and used into genres, and these guide them as to how they should fit the elements of the ad together to form larger meaningful units. Fairclough (1995: 55) argues that we can identify social change and challenges of the social structures to this generic heterogeneity. A particular text can draw upon the language of another genre, or it may perform some of the functions of another genre, and also it mat draw upon the graphic form of another genre (Cook, 1992: 46, describes a Hamlet cigar ad that plays with the British Channel 4 station logo). The ad opens up quite unique and specific identity for its readers/viewers. The reference to other texts is sometimes ironic, so we are being asked by those types of ads to be ironic readers and take a critical standpoint towards media. According to Matheson, before an advertisement can create a desire for a product, it must first create a sense of inadequacy which that desire will fill in Matheson (2002: 48). Advertising works not only when people notice the ads, but when they change their behaviour, preferences and their habits in line with the ad. The goal of advertisements is first to participate in the foundation of peoples lifestyles, of their everyday activities and their understanding of themselves and the world that surrounds them. Cooks study concerning the prototypes, not definitive components of ads resulted in the identification of ads as being embedded in an accompanying discourse, foregrounding connotational meaning, thus effecting fusion between different spheres. Adv ertisements abound in intertextual references, this hypothesis being at the core of Cooks metaphorical definition of parasitic ads: appropriating and existing thorough the voices of other discourses (Cook, 1992: 176). In his study, Cook (1992: 12) heightens the following question: since discourse types may be described in terms of their social function, and vice versa, societies may be categorized in terms of the types of discourses they use, where do we place the advertising discourse? Foucault (1971) argues that a culture represent the sum of its orders of discourse. In this position, advertisements occupy a dual position: they help create a new global culture and a new type of discourse, and also it reflects the differences between cultures. The study of advertisements not only draws attention upon language facts, but they give a great amount of information regarding the cultural and social development of a particular civilization. To define what type of discourse advertisements use it is necessary to notice the attitudes towards this discourse. In this respect, ads are the most controversial of all contemporary discourses, partly because it is relatively new and studies and theories keep comin g to light, and partly because it is associated with the market economy from nowadays which helps the advertising corporations to thrive. Attempts to define ads as a discourse type run into different approaches and theories. One of these theories sustains that analysts must consider first the individual meaning of each of the word, and it was developed by Professor Eleanor Rosch and was named the prototype theory (Rosch, 1977: 34). Her research suggests that we choose or understand a word by referring to a mental representation of a typical instance (Rosch, 1977: 41). That given entity can be a bird, she states, and its image will depend on its resemblance to our prototype of a bird. This will vary from culture to culture, and individual to individual. Rosch states that a typical bird for Europeans can be a sparrow, while for the most North Americans is perhaps a robin. We are less likely to identify with the word from the category, if a particular instance does not match with our prototype. This approach, if applied to the debate of defining ads, simplifies the definition, because discourses that are described as ads, but do not share these prototypical elements of an ad, will no longer make the subject of further analysis. But the prototypical ad varies between a community, individuals and of course periods of time. Another theory that was launched first by Cook (1992) has as a starting point the fact that in order to fulfill its aims, advertising discourse use strategies, especially textual-discursive strategies, and makes use of techniques of manipulation of the language, words, creates ambiguity and also addresses to the emotional and personal feelings of the individual. That is why these discourses are more difficult to pin down. It is because their changing and hybrid nature. The language of advertisements, which linguists state that attests a deviation from the linguistic forms, employs both direct and indirect convincing techniques. In order to achieve their communicative effect, sometimes ad discourses appear ambiguous or use contradictory statements. In the process of constructing ads discourses, the signifier and the signified relationship, in the terms of Saussure (1959), is somehow twisted, misrepresented. In advertising discourses the arbitrariness of sign takes over and the old law s disappear. For example, cohesion, according to Vestargaard and Schroder (1985), ceases to exist in the advertising language, and is replaced by the interpretation of the advertisement message that demands coherence from the point of view of the consumer, and his understanding of that message.

Essay --

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy is a multifaceted novel structured in a complex style. Roy has stealthily intertwined and connected her thoughts which require a deeper than surface level analysis from the readers. Creating an unusual yet successful narrative that achieved praise from most literary critics. The novel narrates the story of the Ipe family from Aymenem, India. The numerous members of the household each add to the unraveling series of events and the result of Sophie Mol’s death. The novel uses a wide range of literary devices such as symbolism and themes like the caste system. Roy creates vibrant imagery through the use of colors, more specifically blue, red, and yellow, that aim to stir up precise affect on the readers as well as to convey certain themes such as colonialism and oppression. There are three major colors that show up in The God of Small Things, which consist of blue, red, and yellow. But, the central color throughout the novel is blue. Blue merely symbolizes imperialism. â€Å"Pappachi, Baby Kochamma and Margaret Kochamma are the main representatives of the old social order that is under the threat of losing its grip on the local community" (Sadaf 74). In particular, the characters Pappachi and Baby Kochamma try to spread their love for the English culture in their post-colonial society. Ironically, the characters support Anglophilia instead of trying to salvage whatever is left of their rapidly diminishing Indian heritage and culture. Therefore, Roy might be attempting to portray these characters loyalty to the British culture by constantly associating them with the color blue. As a result, these characters along with the color blue aid in spreading Roy’s warnings about the negative effect... ... readers and created a realistic, nerve-racking mood. It is evident that while writing the novel, Roy laid the foundations of her story and then began to build and enrich the story line, as she would with a building. Roy jumps from present time to flashback each time creating a new puzzle for her audience to piece together. As we peel away the multiple layers of the story, Roy’s surprising talent in writing becomes obvious. She has somehow taken such a simple device like imagery, focused on specific colors and as a result, designed such a memorable story that revolves around colors. Roy instills certain feelings in her audience and depicts the themes of oppression and colonialism through her use of color symbolism and imagery. As we begin to comprehend the meanings of these colors, we successfully start to grasp the multiple messages Roy attempts to pass on.

Nike in China Essay

According Gasmi and Grelleau (2005), Many multinational companies outsource some of their production activities in countries where ethical standards differ from those in developed countries, which often is the majority of their consumer market. This is particularly the case of multinational producing sporting goods, such as Nike, Reebok and Adidas. Nike is the multinational leader in the world of sporting goods with 40% market sports shoes in 2000, before Adidas (15.1%) and Reebok (10.9 %). Paul Bowerman and Phil Knight founded the firm in 1964 in the USA under the name Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS). In the early 1970s, BRS began designing his own line of shoes, manufactured by Japanese subcontractors. In 1972, the company achieved a turnover of around $ 2 million and change its original name by the launch of the famous Nike brand. In 1978, due to the macro- economic environment (including the oil crisis) and economic development of Japan, Nike began to look for other countries cost of labour low to manufacture its shoes, as the Indonesia and Thailand , and then it goes to China and Vietnam. The quote at the beginning illustrates the problems faced by multinational companies that have chosen to outsource in a country other than the ethical standards of their country of origin. Nike was not scandalized by one incident. However, it is a rather comprehensive review of the political subcontracting conducted by Nike in Asia in general and China in particular. Indeed, Nike was criticized by players defending human rights of lacking ethical practices in outsourcing in China. These actors have insisted that Nike does not meet certain international conventions, inter alia, freedom of association, working conditions, forced labour, child labour and wage issues. Why and how multinational Nike has it become the main target, the  symbol of unethical behaviour, while the practice of its main competitors (Adidas and Reebok) are often similar? To illustrate, according to an opinion poll conducted in Novethic France in March 2002, Nike was the most cited â€Å"unethical† brand (8.7 %), all socio- professional so confused that Adidas has a good picture. The leading position of Nike on the world market, the reputation of its brand and its products, its profitability, visibility allowed actors social advocacy to make a symbol of the lack of ethics and use its market power sports items as leverage their strategies of protest. Kahle, Boushet Phelps (2000) emphasize that the focus of the controversy over Nike is due, among other factors, the characteristics of stakeholders. A stakeholder is a group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organization. The ethical implications of outsourcing of production in developing countries, mainly Asian, are valued differently by stakeholders. It is thus possible to propose two rough categories, the first favourable outsourcing in low-cost countries and reluctant to ethical considerations and the second sensitive to ethical considerations of outsourcing. This binary categorization distinguishes key positions, knowing that many intermediate situations coexist. The following two sub- sections identify and briefly describe these two categories of stakeholders. The company is now looking for a compromise that would satisfy all stakeholders. This first category appreciate the choice of outsourcing, relegating ethical considerations into the background in favour of the organization for private economic benefits. It brings together consumers, shareholders, employees and the countries of sub-contracting and competitors. Nike consumers have a tangible product whose quality is satisfactory at an attractive cost due to low labour costs and savings related to the volume produced. This allows the multinational to reap substantial benefits that are valued by its shareholders, anxious to get the most from their investments. For these actors, ethical considerations are overshadowed over private profits, knowing that consideration of ethical standards – which have the properties of public goods – may be to the detriment of their private benefits. The success of Nike over its competitors is clear from the evolution of its  market share and its leadership. Other actors, namely workers and governments of the countries of sub-contracting, remain back from the ethical choices of the multinational for different reasons, mainly based on considerations of lesser evil for some, attractiveness and economic development for others. What measures have been adopted by Nike to cope with these accusations? If the three response strategies mentioned above is applied, one can examine the measures it has put in place. First of all, Nike has opted for a strategy of inactivity, keeping a low profile. Nike receded charges recalling that its subcontractors were independent foreign companies with which it simply had a contract to produce finished products. Nike also explained that the wages of workers of subcontractors were higher than those of other firms. Finally, Nike insisted that accomplish almost an ethical work by helping with its production activities in economic development and improving the living standard of the country. Then Nike has increased responsiveness. Several NGOs began to criticize Nike using the media to denounce the working conditions at subcontractors of Nike. In addition, actions such as lobbying, public protests, encouraging consumers to boycott products and trials cascade were made. All this has affected the reputation and results of the company and thus has grown considerably, forcing multinationals to react. In that time, Nike admitted its potential role and sought to address ethical problems from concrete and tangible elements, as is the case of the establishment in 1992 of a code of conduct † Memorandum of Understanding † a document that requires its subcontractors the elimination of forced labour and child labour, to apply the legal provisions in force in the country concerned, with the inclusion of one day off per week and a maximum of sixty hours of work per week. The company also undertakes to recognize the right of workers to freedom of association, and not to practice any form of discrimination. Despite the existence of this Code of Conduct, there is still a lack of control, transparency and sanctions may make it effective. At present, we can say that ethical and environmental issues are considered  priorities in the overall management of the company. Recognizing the benefit of proactive actions, Nike has recently launched in North America † Reuse- A-Shoe â€Å", a voluntary program to collect and recycle used sneakers for the manufacture of flooring for different types of sports fields . This initiative and others allow Nike to acquire an image of confidence, both technical and moral, in the context of environmental protection and regulations. To conclude, we can say that the existence of a power to international market such as Nike comes more of a notion of social and moral responsibility of the business, especially critical in activities based on reputation of the company. It is absolutely necessary for the company to find a balance between ethical and economic objectives, it means for the company to make substantial profits on financial matters without affecting the expectations and interests of the various stakeholders. The integration of the ethical dimension is generally perceived as a company generating costs. However, beyond this approach in terms of cost alone, it is possible to consider integration as a strategic option that can generate a competitive advantage. Indeed, the establishment of a pre-activated or proactive strategy may, under certain conditions, allow companies to integrate ethical issues and generate â€Å"winwinwin† situations (win for the company, consumers and activists), by inserting these efforts in a strategy of differentiating its products over those of competitors. These strategies raise many research questions, because of their characteristics. This type of differentiation, such as lack of child labour does not bring tangible changes to the product. This differentiation involves not visible and unverifiable characteristics of the final product by the consumer († credence goods â€Å"). To make perceptible to the consumer, taking into account informational dimensions (information asymmetry) and cognitive (informational overload) are crucial. In addition, ethical profits generated by these strategies generally have a favourable opportunistic behaviour collective dimension, as the risk of free riding. In addition to the costs associated with the implementation of ethical characteristics, previous problems generate transaction costs can be high, especially to ensure the  credibility of ethical differentiation. _PART B: PORTFOLIO OF EVIDENCE_ _Appendix A: Ethical debate_ We can say that Mike Gustavsson is indeed utilitarian for him happiness is the supreme good of life. So happiness must prevail on wealth, freedom, and equality. Indeed, Mike thinks that corporate behaviour is determined by the behaviour at the top of the organization, if you have good people at the helm of the company, make good decisions, and using the right rules, then the society itself is ethical. Mike was initially very happy that her daughter had a good job with good pay, but now he is worried business type of environment that is generated in the business that takes graduates of business schools fees and idealistic transforms them into frames bonus to research. We can say that Jan Edwards is utilitarian, in fact, it is to maximize the overall well-being of all sentient beings. Jan is involved in a program to provide education in Guatemala. January launched a program to encourage employees of his company to give their time to help the most disadvantaged people themselves. But Jan has become increasingly concerned in recent years the nature of graduates it employs trade schools on its internal development program graduate. Many graduates seem extremely focused on profitability and work their way up the corporate ladder rather than on good people management skills, being well-rounded citizens and good, genuine people. Arguably Mei- Hua is non- consequentialist right and justice, in fact according to John Rawls (1971) , justice is served when the burden and benefits of a corporation are distributed in accordance with the principles that free and rational persons would agree as conforming to their own interests without knowing in advance what are the advantages and disadvantages they would actually receive in the distribution process. The key to ethics is fairness. She believes that professionals have had in  recent years a very bad image and negative press about their ethical behaviour. Accounting as a profession has strict codes of conduct and strict rules, and Mei- Hua has consistently adhered to these rules, and she also believes that she and her colleagues are very professional ethical and moral people who are treated unfairly . In his company, for example, they have a strict code of business conduct, especially on financial matters such as fraud, and she was always impressed by the way the code of conduct is reinforced in the induction of company and the company documentation. Mei- Hua believes that strong ethical codes of conduct and codes of conduct strong professional to lead a moral and ethical company, and the generation of profits and wealth, as well as ethical, can work alongside each other. Finally, we can say that Deshi Chen is individualistic, in fact, according to Emile Durkheim Individualism is a political, social and moral conception which tends to favour the rights, interests and values ​​of the individual versus the group and the community. Its principle is that the individual is the only entity that can measure the moral worth of an action. And rejects the substitution of the individual by the group process often used to unfairly promote individual sacrifices for the benefit of others. The dream of him one day work for a large international companies but is concerned that without a good office job, he will never be able to provide a stable environment to raise a family, and it will not be attractive to potential brides. Deshi parents are the first in their family to have reached a comfortable lifestyle of the middle class. Deshi worked hard all his life in his education, and tried to build a good business experience to do office work. But he also knows that Western societies are hypocrites who say one thing and mean another when they operate in China. But even if Deshi is unhappy with the teaching of ethics and ethical leadership, if it fails this course, he knows he will be in danger and his diploma, which means not only the end of the dream work, but also the dream of being attractive for a bride. Deshi is not clear why these dreams have to suffer because of this useless ethics course, and would like to see removed from the curriculum. _Appendix B: Ethical Dilemma Case_ In this part, we are going to Identify and analyse all the ethical dilemmas for each characters. Using several concepts: such as the utilitarianism, egoism, and virtue ethics concepts. So first, we are going to explain All Those concepts according to Bentham and John Stuart Mill (1987), Utilitarianism is a system of morals and ethics, unable to objectively define what is good and evil, is proposes to ignore establishing useful as the first principle of action. He considers that what is useful is good and that the utility can be determined rationally. Utilitarianism is based on the sole criterion of optimization of the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people, assuming that the well- being of all is well for all men. He rejects the notion duty as first and measure the morality of an action with consequences we can expect quality. Ãâ€"sterberg explains that egoism states that the human being should always act in order to satisfy his personal interests in the long term it would be better for everyone and not only but for all. Finally, according Metayer (2008) the virtue ethics focuses on character traits as evidenced by the actions: to determine the morality of an action, we must look the character trait that is usually associated with such an act. Is it a virtue or a vice? An act is morally good because it is what would someone virtuous. Now that we have explained these concepts, we will apply them to the different characters. Firstly the characters are faced with a dilemma are: Borries, Borries ‘s manager and Marcus. Borries was due to go on holiday with his girlfriend Swee Lan but his manager told him to not to go to holiday because of work. Borries ‘s dilemma is to choose to go to meet his girl friend and her parents’, but Borries would face sanctions for his manager. Or to stay at work that would generate further contracts for the company but Swee Lan and her parents’ Would Be very upset not to meet him. Borries decided to cancel his holiday! According Bertham and Mill (1987), Borries is utilitarian because he wants the happiness of the greatest number of people and in this case these are the shareholders, managers and co-workers. The solution would be that shifts the date of his vacation he finishes his work and he leaves after. The manager ‘s dilemma is to let Borries to go to holiday and loose further contracts or to force Borries to stay by threatening to sanction that would generate lots of contracts. For Ãâ€"sterberg (1988) the manager is only egoist because he sees its own interests and the company interests because more contracts said more profits, and shareholders will best see him. The solution would be to leave Borries go on vacation because it give huge for the company and replace it with another person. Finally, Borries’s friend Marcus reacts after the decision of Borries to not go to holiday and he told him that he was a coward, he was to weak to say no and had jeopardised his relationship with Swee Lan. Marcus dilemma is to tell him his opinions on him decision to stay and to convince that he made the wrong decision (that what true friend do or to do not tell him and to be a bad friend. For Metayer (2008), Marcus is a holding of virtue ethics because the fact to help that person would be charitable or benevolent. Indeed, in this case Marcus just wants to do its best to him. He took the better solution that is to say to tell him its opinions. _Appendix C: Interpersonal and Team-working skills_ First, we were a group of 5 students, from different countries. In the group, there was no leader or no secretary. It was a group of communication. Indeed, the people participating in the group share the same â€Å"status† within the group. The social order is indeed based more on compliance but on consensus, compromise emerges an institutionalized dialogue in which everyone can participate either by a mutual adjustment. For each seminar, we had case studies to analyse. Firstly, we were doing our work in our side and one week before the seminar, we met all together to exchange our views and our differences. The interpersonal communication in our group was very strong between members of the group and the transverse flow and informal communication. After exchanging and gave its opinion, we put our thoughts together and divided the parts we would propose to the oral. At the end of the meeting, we asked questions to each other to see if we mastered well about us. Personally, these group projects taught me a lot, in fact, to discuss, say, and especially to defend my opinions, listen to those of others, to find a consensus. This allowed me to provide personal enrichment discuss with people with different cultures. And the fact that there was a good atmosphere and good communication within the group pushed ourselves to more investment in this module and I’m convince that we were more interested! REFERENCES : BENTHAM JEREMY AND STUART MILL JOHN (1987) UTILITARIANISM AND OTHER ESSAYS DURKHEIM ÉMILE (1898) L’INDIVIDUALISME ET LES INTELLECTUELS – Gasmi N. et Grolleau G., (2005) Nike face à   la controverse à ©thique relative à   ses sous-traitants – Kahle L. R., Boush D. M., Phelps M., (2000) â€Å"Good morning, Vietnam: an Ethical analysis of Nike activities in Southeast Asia – Mà ©tayer Michel (2008) La philosophie à ©thique : enjeux et dà ©bats actuels – Ãâ€"sterberg Jan (1988) Self and Others: A Study of Ethical Egoism – Rawls John (1971) A Theory of Justice

Helmut Newton

NEWTON HELMUT because of the threat of the Nazis. This turned out to be a gift to the world because it eventually gave him the freedom to pursue his now legendary career in photography. HELMUT NEWTON was born in Germany and later forced out of the country We see a lot of sexy photos of women in today's magazines, most of them designed only to titillate and excite men, having no artistic message that goes beyond â€Å"I am sexy†. In the fashion photography world, however, there is one man that has used the female form to delve into human nature even though it is viewed by many as pornographic and inappropriate.Helmut Newton, for decades, pushed the envelope in fashion photography. HELMUT NEWTON Born on October 31, 1920 in Berlin, Helmut Newton grew up in a privileged family. Due to his passion for photography, he stopped going to school and pursued an apprenticeship with Elsie Simon, a top photographer. He only had this job for a while because he had to leave Germany due to Ado lf Hitler's violent treatment of. He went to Singapore and got a job there but it did not last long though. He moved around Singapore for a while until he moved to Australia in 1940.There, he settled and built a new life with his wife, June Brunell. He continued following his passion for photography, eventually getting his work to appear in top fashion magazines around the world. Helmut Newton, 1978 HELMUT NEWTON His Career as a Photographer From his small photo studio that he built in Melbourne, he eventually got the creative momentum that led him to get his photos published in French Vogue in 1961. From there, his name became synonymous to the magazine's look and feel, leading to more work for other magazines such as Nova, Queen, Marie-Claire, Elle, Playboy and different editions of Vogue.His provocative photos of women earned him the titles â€Å"Prince of Porn† and â€Å"King of Kink†. This image of his kind of photography was cemented with the release of his book called â€Å"White Women,† an erotic publication that defines his style and artistic vision. Ornella Muti by Helmut Newton,1986 HELMUT NEWTON Purveyor of Powerful Women Helmut Newton images depicting women in men's clothing and depicting them as powerful figures, breaking all the molds built by society, made heads turned. It also led some people to ask for his head to roll.Even with all the controversy, he continued pushing the envelope in photographing women by taking images of nude bodies in provocative positions. It may have been met by scrutiny and rage in the beginning, but it eventually became the industry standard. His unconventional images of femme fatales made Helmut Newton a legend in fashion photography. Not even his death in 2004 would end his undeniable influence in how photography can exude power in women. Le Smoking by Helmut Newton,1975 HELMUT NEWTON A LegendHelmut Newton did not just limit his photography to nude women and fashion. He also shared with the who le world his early life as a survivor of the Nazi invasion in Germany. He took portraits of Nazi personalities and other people relevant to the very difficult time in world history. Helmut Newton images clearly show the world through the eyes of a nomad who wandered the earth, not giving a care to people's judgments and myopic views. Willy Van Rooy by Helmut Newton, Vogue 1967 HELMUT NEWTON Helmut Newton 31 October 1920 – 23 January 2004Newton died on January 23, 2004 due to a car accident in California. It was reported that he lost control of his car because of sudden heart attack. The 83 years old photographer crashed into the wall beyond the Hotel Chateau Marmont's driveway in Hollywood. HELMUT NEWTON Some of his work HELMUT NEWTON Dressed They’re coming (naked) Paris,1981 HELMUT NEWTON Miami,1978 Bergstrom over Paris,1976 HELMUT NEWTON Celebrities Naomi Campbell The face 1991 Sigourney Weaver Monica Bellucci Blumarine Spring-Summer 1993 (Ad Campaign) HELMUT NEWTON Thank You