Evolution of an Urban Area Free Essays

James L. Minter, III PD 120 Assignment #2: Evolution of an Urban Area Location: Atlanta, Ga. / Fulton County I have chosen to do my research on the city of Atlanta, Georgia within Fulton County. We will write a custom essay sample on Evolution of an Urban Area or any similar topic only for you Order Now Atlanta is the largest city within Fulton County and has significant value to the Black community. It is of interest to me as Black/Latino man who has been astonished by how quickly so many minorities have jumped at the opportunity to head south when we not so long ago were heading north at a record pace for the same reason, opportunity. I will discuss what I have read, researched, and learned from my own experiences as well.In this country, so many squirm at the very mention of the suburban â€Å"White Flight† of White persons buying suburban homes every since WWII. However, the fact remains that in this country no matter what race you are if you are presented with a better alternative for living and working you will gravitate towards that lifestyle. This is extremely evident in my research, as so many Blacks headed back to where their mother’s and father’s fled to either escape death, racism, slavery or was just simply looking for a job to make a living.Within my community the state of Georgia was not looked upon favorably, in fact, when I was a child, 40 years ago, it would have been considered just about crazy to leave progressive New York for the racist south, especially Georgia where cotton was a mainstay to the economy. Nowadays, it’s becoming just the opposite; the businesses are leaving for the south (along with the jobs) and the racism being experienced up north, I believe, is because of the shrinking market for jobs and the disdain for someone in a minority group â€Å"taking† what used to be â€Å"yours job†.So for those reasons, I’d like to take you on a journey to understand what Atlanta has become and why many Blacks affectionately refer it to as â€Å"Chocolate City†. Fulton County in 1900 had a population of 117,363 persons and has grown to 816,006 in the 2000 census. Whereas, the City of Atlanta in 1900 had a population of 89,872 persons and has grown to 537,958 since the 2000 census. Fulton county since the early 1900’s has steadily been in the low single digits as far as foreign born persons residing within the county ntil 2000 where the foreign born rate climbed to 10%. Although historically in Atlanta and Fulton County the predominant immigrants are those whose ancestry are from Russia, Germany, UK, Italy, Ireland, and Greece it wasn’t until the 2000 census that Africans were migrating to Atlanta as the 4th largest migrating group on record. It further demonstrated that those of African descent and those who were American Blacks looked upon Atlanta as a chance for minorities to â€Å"get ahead† and share some form of American success.Many Blacks from the north began migrating south, just the opposite as the early 1900â €™s, as industries such as auto plants began downsizing, steel plants were shutting down more and more, affirmative action was being frowned upon, and the large incomes that were being made within the construction industries (both via developing and trade unions in the west and north east) was not being shared with northern western Blacks. The trade unionist, still to this day, struggle to â€Å"give up† what they perceive to be their own trade with minority groups (i. e.Italian cement masons laborers, German Operators, Irish Iron Workers, etc. ). This shutting out phenomenon of varying industries, especially within the northeast, has caused many minority groups (esp. Blacks and Latinos) to migrate south for opportunities that were not present to them at home. When you couple the â€Å"black/brown migration† south to Atlanta along with subsidies being given to oil companies and big corporations to relocate headquarters along the â€Å"Sunbelt†; there is no wonder that opportunity was available for those who were willing to work non-union and compete for low paying jobs against migrant workers.Since the immigration laws were eased via legislation in 1965, the most extreme documentation of â€Å"Sunbelt† workers in Fulton County have been those of Spanish speaking origin for various reasons. Since the 1970 census, Hispanic ethnicity in Fulton County went from 8,260 to a whopping 48,056 in the 2000 census. Whether it be Cubans fleeing communism, Mexicans looking to just make a decent living, or Blacks fleeing being shut out during the up rise of our economy during the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the fact remains that Atlanta was viewed as a city where minorities could go and make a better life for themselves and their families.This â€Å"black/brown migration† was not going unnoticed by the native White’s of Atlanta. As Blacks became the majority group in Atlanta by 2000 at 60% of the city’s population, Whites continued to move away to their suburban homelands of Fulton County, as they made up 66% of the suburbs population in 2000. Atlanta and Fulton County continued to grow but it was evident that it was growing into a more extreme segregated population. However, there was a transformation-taking place, the Black suburb.The more populated th e city of Atlanta was getting; the more Blacks began populating the suburbs themselves. Along with the pattern of the housing market targeting low and middle-income residents to buy homes from the mid 1990’s through the 2000’s. Blacks (and other minority groups) began buying suburban homes attempting to gain the â€Å"American Dream†. As a political foresight to the â€Å"black/brown† migration, the affluent suburb of Buckhead was annexed and became part of Atlanta, as many believe, to keep the majority-voting block in the city White.So, now being part of Atlanta, many Blacks began buying beautiful homes in Buckhead and other surrounding suburbs creating the vision of a â€Å"Black suburb†. However, since this annexation there has been increased feuding with the northern residents of the more affluent White suburbs with the collection and distribution of taxes towards the southern portion of the county. The feeling amongst the northerners within the county is that they are subsidizing the south because that’s where the most loc al support service dollars are being spent.So after the 2000 census Blacks now make up at least 28% of the Fulton County suburbs, and still maintain over 60% of the population in the city of Atlanta, thus justifying the affectionate name of â€Å"Chocolate City†. Another varying phenomenon is the research numbers that show that even with a heavy influx of Asian/Pacific Islander into Fulton County and the city of Atlanta less than 1% actually migrated to the city while over 4% migrated immediately to the suburb.This further shows the trend of those even born in another country knows that to live in the suburbs in America is a matter of status more than anything else. Especially when the suburbs in European cities represent all the ills of their societies, and it’s literally vice versa. Our affluent residents look to leave the central cities, while European affluent residents look to live as close to the center of the city as possible (Paris, for example).Between 1950 and 1960 is when the greatest changes came to the region, with the city growing by almost 140,000 persons due to its annexation of the Buckhead suburb. The city of Atlanta varies from its suburbs in Fulton County for one main reason, the highway structure and volumes of he adquarters for major corporations and media outlets. While the suburbs in Fulton County are littered with strip malls and sub divisions, the City of Atlanta is filled with tall corporate buildings surrounded by winding and crisscrossing highway roads. The Fulton County suburbs are predominantly White (with a heavy influence of Russian and German ancestry), clean and quiet within the neighborhoods, while the City of Atlanta is predominantly Black, loud and busy (especially during the day), with stand still traffic on the highways during the morning and evening rush hours, covered under a layer of fog from vehicle emissions. The problem that â€Å"Chocolate City† and Fulton County will be facing soon is the lack of jobs even in this economy that may be on the rise.The burst of the dot com bubbles, the failing oil refineries, and globalization of businesses will surely have the residents of this once bubbling land of opportunity in Atlanta possibly fleeing again for greener pastures elsewhere, or fighting for jobs for even less pay with migrant workers or desperate residents willing to take almost anything that you would not, if you had a choice. So â€Å"Chocolate City† has been good to many minority workers, especiall y over the last two decades, however the sun may be rising and the chocolate sweetness of success may be melting sooner than one might think. How to cite Evolution of an Urban Area, Papers

Logistics and Operations Management in Tesco

Qustion: Identify component activities for the Tesco. Then evaluate the performance objectives used by each and critically examine and suggest ways in which the performance could be improved? Answer: Introduction Logistics and operations management are the two important areas in an organisation that are crucial to its overall performance levels. In order to perform the management of these two important areas of an organisation, it is essential that their methods of planning and organising such processes need to be focused. This is mainly because the effectiveness of planning and organising of organisational processes is crucial from the point of view of achieving success in the areas of operations and networking management. Operations management involves the performance of large number of processes and activities aimed at achieving operational efficiency. This in turn allows for delivering the products and services to the final consumers in an efficient way because the operational efficiency allows firms with the accessibility to competitive advantage. Apart from this, the logistics management is also known as establishing networking across different operational areas of the organisation so t hat the entire chain can be carried out efficiently and ultimately, timely delivery of the finished products to the final consumers can be ensured (Dlabay, Burrow and Kleindl, 2011). This report is aimed at performing an analysis of the component activities of Tesco Plc with specific attention being placed towards the oil business of the company. As a part of this component activity analysis, the assessment of the performance objectives as utilised by each such component activity would be performed, and the actual performance assessment of the company would result into appropriate recommendations for achieving further level of improvement in its performance. Analysis of Tesco Petrol Filling Station As the organisation chosen for the purpose of analysis is Tesco Plc, this section of analysis is now aimed at evaluating Tesco Plc in brief. Tesco Plc is mainly a supermarket retailer based in UK. The company has diverse range of operations, and Tesco Petrol Filling Station is known for selling petrol. The company has initially started selling its petrol in 1974, and it performs the selling of its petrol at most of its superstores and extra locations. The fuel as sold by Tesco is mainly developed by Greenergy. Tesco has also entered into business alliance with Esso, a part of Exxon Mobil and this has resulted into several filling stations on lease from Esso by the company. Tesco operates its stores under their express format. The company has been successful in selling petrol through its wide distribution network (Tesco Petrol Filling Stations, 2015). Identification of Component Activities in Respect to Tesco Petrol Filling This section of analysis is now aimed at analysing the component activities in respect to Petrol Filling Station Service as offered by Tesco Plc. An analysis of the component activity concept is essential before actually carrying out the evaluation in respect to Tesco Filling Station. The component activities are mainly the component parts that must be carried out by an organisation in order to accomplish the organisational goals (Greasley, 1999). As Tesco Filling Station, the primary goal of the company has been to provide best quality service and quality oil to its customers across wide geographic areas. In ensuring the delivery of such services, there are a large range of component activities that are essential to be carried out so that best possible services can be delivered to the final consumers. The component activities need to achieve operational efficiency so that the final consumers are provided with higher value for the money as spent by them. An analysis of the case of Te sco Petrol Filling station leads to the identification of key component activities such as providing values to the customers, providing oil filling opportunities to its customers, and assisting them with additional services (Tesco, 2015). Key Performance Objective in Relation to the Component Activity There are various important component activities that have been identified in respect to the Tesco Petrol Filling Stations. These activities are briefly summarised below and followed by this is the explanation of the objectives that the organisation seeks to accomplish from each such component activities. The important component activities along with their objectives are indicated below: Providing Values to Customers- This is an important component activity that has been noted in relation to Tesco Petrol Filling Station. As per this component activity, Tesco Petrol filling station seeks to provide higher values to its consumers for the money spent by them across different filling stations of the company. In relation to this, the important objectives are indicated as follows: To provide quality fuels to its customers that enhances their vehicle performance. To ensure the positive compliance with the British specifications for oil. To make sure that quality fuels are being availed from its suppliers that best comply with its requirements (Tesco Petrol Filling Stations, 2015). Providing Oil Filling Opportunities- The particular component activity is concerned with meeting out the needs and requirements for fuels within its customers. The important objectives as noted in relation to this particular filling opportunity are identified as follows: To ensure the availability of wide range of fuels across different destinations in UK so as to offer consumer value. To provide different grades of fuel aimed at meeting out the needs and expectations of its customers for diverse quality (Tesco Petrol Filling Stations, 2015). Providing Additional Services: At Tesco Petrol Filling Stations, the company not only aims at providing best quality fuels to its customers, but its aim also include delivering additional services to its customers. The objective in relation to this component activity is indicated as follows: To provide additional services in its petrol filling stations from its different range of products across other stores. To promote its petrol filling station service by offering wide range of food items from its Tesco departmental stores (Tesco Petrol Filling Stations, 2015). These are the important component activities that have been noted in respect to Tesco Petrol Filling Station, and there are different important objectives that are also noted. The next section analyses the actual performance of Tesco Filling Station with respect to the above identified objectives. These are indicated as follows: Tesco Petrol Filling Performance against the Objectives The analysis above has indicated about various such component activities in relation to Tesco Plc, and the objectives are also identified in this respect. However, the actual performance assessment is essential so that based on its current performance in relation to such performance objectives, appropriate recommendations would be provided. In respect to the companys component activity of providing values to its customers, an analysis of Tesco Petrol Filling Station in particular indicates that there are a range of activities that are considered by the company in providing values to its customers. As for example, within the oil segment, there has been categorisation being done by Tesco Plc in terms of Tesco Unleaded, Tesco Diesel, and Tesco Momentum. This categorisation is aimed at meeting different kinds of need of its customers. The company looks towards charging prices based on the quality, as best quality fuel is charged higher and vice versa. This particular strategy allows Tesc o in servicing its customers with higher value. In addition to this, additional values are aimed to provide to their customers by Tesco Filling Station by way of ensuring that its fuels are refined in its behalf which is aimed at cleaning and protecting the engine of vehicles. There are wide range of British Standards being used in order to maintain the quality levels of its different fuels such as : Tesco Unleaded: (BS EN228) Tesco Diesel: (BS EN590) Tesco Momentum (BS EN7800). These are some of the ways in which value is being sought to provide to the final consumers by the company. Apart from the component activity of providing value to customers, the analysis of Tescos Petrol Filling Stations component activity also shows that it aims at providing large range of opportunities to its customers. The organisation focuses on providing its customers with petrol filling opportunities across wide range of areas. In relation to this, the performance of analysis of Tescos Petrol Filling Stations indicated that there has been alliance being formed by the company with Esso and this allowed it in providing its fuel across wide range of areas catering to the needs and requirements of its customers. This alliance has allowed Tesco in increasing the number of Tesco Filling Stations which in turn has facilitated wider geographic distribution to the company. The sale of petrol can be increased by providing its accessibility to large geographic areas, and this kind of strategy in the form of alliances allows Tesco Petrol filling station in serving more and more of its customers (Nair, 2002). Finally, with respect to the component of providing additional services, the objective of the company is to assist its customers with other products and services. The performance of Tesco Petrol in this respect is mainly efficient because there are a large range of activities and initiatives that are considered by the company in order to provide additional assistance to its customers. As for example, there are petrol filling station kiosks which offer customers on-the-go convenience for their journey without charging any premium. There are tailored ranges of products that are offered across the kiosks of the company and with such additional services, the company do not charges any extra prices from its customers. Overall, the analysis of the performance of Tesco indicated that there is significant level of efforts by the company in order to achieve the desired level of objectives in its business performance. This has allowed it in achieving higher level of effectiveness with respect to meeting out its objectives (Tesco, 2015). Recommendations for Improving Performance A critical analysis has been carried out with respect to the performance of Tesco Petrol filling station in respect to its key component activities and the performance of the company has been analysed in this respect. Based on the analysis of performance, there are certain major recommendations that are considered essential and these are indicated as follows: Tesco Petrol Filling Retail should consider for additional ways of delivering its wide range of fuel to its customers. Although there are various such filling stations that are operational at the moment, yet it can achieve further level of expansion by way of focusing more on increasing the number of such stations (Meredith and Shafer, 2009). It is also recommended that the strategy of offering Kiosks is a good strategy, and it should be expanded to all the filling stations (Bakliwal, 2011). The value to the customers can be provided by way of providing them good quality of foods and services and also the good quality fuel. In this respect, the company should focus more on the refining process so that the fuel as offered would positively support the engines of customers. There should be additional value added services that should be considered by Tesco Petrol Filling Stations such as providing large range of options in selling its fuel. It can be in the form of discounts on huge purchases of oil by its customers, or it can also be in terms of supporting through accepting wide payment options from its customers (Lewis and Slack, 2003). These are some of the major recommendations that are considered essential and by focusing on them, improvement in the performance of Tesco can be achieved. Conclusion In this report, a critical assessment of the component activities of Tesco Petrol Filling Station has been performed, and there are important performance objectives of the company that have been noted in this regard. On the basis of analysis of performance, it has been evaluated that there are specific component activities in the operation of Tesco Petrol Filling Station such as providing values to customers, ensuring them larger opportunities and also making it sure that there are additional options being provided to them. The analysis of the performance of Tesco Petrol Filling has indicated that the company has been largely successful in providing these services and there has been improved overall performance objectives being achieved by it. However, in order to accomplish further level of improvements in its performance, it has been recommended that the company should look for expanding its reach by opening more such petrol filling stations. References Bakliwal, V.K. (2011), Production and Operation Management, Pinnacle Technology, pp. 1- Dlabay, L.R., Burrow, J.L. and Kleindl, B.A.(2011), Principles of Business, Cengage Learning, pp. 228-230 Greasley, A. (1999), Operations Management in Business, Nelson Thornes, pp. 176-190. Lewis, M. and Slack, N. (2003), Operations Management: Critical Perspectives on Business and Management, Routledge, pp. 45-54. Meredith, J.R. and Shafer, S.M. (2009), Operations Management For Mbas, 3Rd Ed, John Wiley Sons, pp. 123-143. Nair, (2002), Production and Operations Management, Tata McGraw-Hill Education, pp. 154-172. Tesco Petrol Filling Stations, (2015) [Online]. Available at: https://www.tescopfs.com/about-us/range Accessed: 03 April 2015].

Freedom Writers free essay sample

Possible answers for Six Step Analysis of Freedom Writers exposed 1. List all the different examples of belonging evident in the text: The students are clearly identified as belonging to an ethnic group, based on colour, race and ethnicity, e. g. the Cambodians, the Latinos, the African Americans and the ‘whites’. They also identify themselves as being gang members and belonging to the gang, including having territory and ‘protecting your own’. The majority of the students live in an area called the ‘projects’ and belong to the area of Longbeach.As students, they belong to Woodrow Wilson High School and by being placed in Miss Gruwell’s class they identify themselves as belonging to the ‘dumb’ class. Then, as the movie progresses, the students clearly see themselves as belonging to Miss Gruwell, the class and the classroom Room 203. 2. Choose three interesting, possibly contrasting examples of belonging / not belonging, not all from the same category. We will write a custom essay sample on Freedom Writers or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page ? For each example, build up a set of notes in response to these questions: a. Describe the person and the other person or group or society or place or the world as depicted in the text. . Describe the connection between the person and the other person or group or society or place or world in terms of belonging. c. How does the person’s context influence his/her experience and sense of belonging (or lack of it)? d. What other factors impinge on the person’s experience and sense of belonging (or lack of it)? e. How do the person’s experience and sense of belonging (or lack of it) affect his/her self-concept and world-view? f. Do the experience and sense of belonging change through the course of the text? If so, explain why. At the beginning of the movie we are introduced to Eva and given an understanding of what it is to belong to the Latino group. We hear it from her perspective and see both the danger and the security that comes from belonging to a gang. Eva’s father is well-respected in the Latino world. However, he is sent to prison for a crime he did not commit when a member of a rival gang/ethnic group identifies him as the perpetrator. Eva’s father taught her to fight and to be proud to be Latino. He taught her to always ‘take care of her own’.Eva’s father’s experience influences the family, and particularly Eva, into believing that it is more important to support your fellow gang members than to tell the truth or see justice done. It is all about the victories of the gang and not about the ‘right’ or ‘moral’ act. When Eva witnesses one of her gang members commit murder, she is encouraged to blame it on an African American boy who was also there at the scene, rather than tell the truth. She is told to protect her own and to blame the rival gang. After all, that is what happened to her father, and it is time for them to win a victory.At first Eva is willing to do this, but as time goes on and she begins to belong more consciously and willingly to Miss Gruwell’s class, she realises that to blame someone else is not the right thing to do. The lessons she is learning in Erin Gruwell’s class are now causing an internal conflict for her as she struggles to work out what to do in court. By the end of the movie, Eva makes the decision to do the ‘right’ thing rather than to blindly ‘protect her own’, and identifies her fellow gang-member as the murderer. Her life is then in danger from the gang she belongs to, but she belongs now even more firmly to Miss Gruwell’s class, and believes that she can make a difference and have a life better than the one she has led thus far. Initially, her sense of belonging only extended as far as her family, her gang and her ethnic group. Ultimately, her sense of belonging expanded to include those members of her class and Miss Gruwell, and the learning that took place changed her self-concept and her world view. Example 2 -When Erin Gruwell arrives for class on the first day, it is clear that she does not belong to the same social class or ethnic group as her students. She is in a business suit with pearls and appears naive and idealistic about the class she will shortly face. The class arrives and settles into various groups within the classroom – clearly divided boundaries separate the different groups of students. Erin Gruwell belongs to none of them. Nor can she identify with them – she does not know their world or their experiences, and has no understanding of their world-view or their lives.Erin’s father had been involved in the Civil Rights Movement and Erin had been inspired by that and wanted to make her own difference in the world. Knowing that Woodrow Wilson High School was an integrated high school, she chose to work there, hoping to be an instrument for change. Clinging to the belief that she can make a difference, Erin proceeds to learn about her students and their lives, and to use that knowledge to make their learning relevant and worthwhile for them. In the process the students come together as one group, er class, rather than the conglomeration of separate groups in the one room that they had been in the beginning. Over time, the students begin to feel that they belong to her, and she to them, referring to themselves no longer as just a class, but now a ‘family’. They fight to keep her as their teacher when she would normally have passed on to teaching other classes. Once Erin has an understanding of her students and the lives they live, she is even more determined to do whatever it takes to give them a better future. She takes on two additional jobs to fund resources and excursions for the students.Erin’s understanding of the Holocaust allows her to open a new world for her students, where they grow to understand that children were persecuted and killed in another country during the Holocaust due to the same type of intolerance they themselves are perpetrating. As they begin to widen their own world-view, they change their initial sense of belonging, widening it from the restrictive narrowness of their ethnicity. Example 3 – The white boy in class, Ben, clearly does not belong. He is scared at having to be in the class with all the other ethnic groups and gangs.Ben does not want to be a part of them and clearly is not affiliated with any one gang or ethnic group. He is the only white student in the class. At one stage Eva declares that she hates white people, and when Miss Gruwell then asks Ben if he would like to respond to that, his only answer is ‘Can I get out of here? ’ Over time, as the learning in Miss Gruwell’s class begins to overcome the clear boundaries of each ethnic group, Ben begins to become an accepted member of the class and to clearly belong with all of the students.His world-view changes as he begins to understand the lives his fellow-students live, and he stops being afraid of them and starts to identify himself as belonging to them. Initially Ben’s only sense of belonging to the rest of the class was that he was ‘dumb’ enough to belong in that class. Eventually he is an accepted part of the class and clearly belongs. Back 3. What techniques does the composer use to represent belonging in particular ways in the text? The composer begins with the voice-over narration of Eva, reading what turns out to be sections from her diary. We are shown a glimpse of the events she is recounting and then taken to the present day. In this way, we are encouraged to identify and empathise with Eva, and clearly understand her strong sense of belonging to the Latino group. The music played throughout the film is usually rap, hip hop and RB, clearly connecting the audience to the world of the youth in the film. The lyrics of the songs often reflect the events of the students’ lives, despite their youth.The use of a soundtrack that appeals to a youthful audience will draw the younger audience to watch and relate to the movie, and hopefully inspire them accordingly. A large part of the movie is filmed within the classroom or grounds of Woodrow Wilson High School. Throughout the movie, we see the transformation of the barren environment of Room 203 into one with bright posters, functioning equipment and a welcoming atmosphere. The transformation of the set echoes the transformation of the students and their attitudes. As progress is made with the students, we see it reflected in the way the room looks.This assists the audience to see the personal growth and change that is occurring in the students, in a quick, visual way without needing lengthy explanations or dialogue. There are a lot of close-up shots used to show the audience the students’ facial expressions. We are guided to focus on their emotions in order to truly understand what is taking place within the classroom. It is rare that we are focused on their books or the board (in fact, there are a number of continuity errors that involve the blackboard so it was clearly not designed to be our focus).In other movies about teachers and students, there is often a lot of focus on the equipment of their learning for instance in ‘Stand and Deliver’, the movie depicts the students’ struggle to learn advanced calculus and thus more camera time is spent focusing on the tools of their learning. In ‘Freedom Writers’, the learning is not primarily about English, though English is taught and learned also, and therefore the camera focuses on the faces to show us that it is in the students and their emotions and understanding of the world that the vital learning is taking place. Back 4.Overall, what ideas about belonging are presented in the text? The text begins by showing the dangers and benefits of belonging to a gang. These gangs are based on racial groups and thus you can be clearly identified as belonging merely by the colour of your skin. By the end of the text, the responder has been shown that belonging only to one group can result in a dangerous narrowing of your worldview. The students in the text discover that belonging to a wider group, that of their class and teacher, has exposed them to greater understandings of what it is to belong to the world.The concept of belonging is represented in the text through the use of racial groups and gangs, and the te acher, Erin Gruwell, who is outside these groups, challenging the students to belong to each other, and the world, in a way that will open up a better future for them. 5. How are you, as reader or audience, positioned to view the representation of belonging? The responder is clearly positioned at the beginning to see the benefits of belonging to a gang, including security, affection, friendship and support.However, the composer has also shown the more dangerous side of this type of belonging, including being shot at and beaten up for belonging to a particular racial group. The continual use of excerpts from the students’ diaries, usually narrated by the students in a voiceover and combined with a visual impression of the event, positions the responder to understand and empathise with the world of the students. We are encouraged to see the students through Erin Gruwell’s eyes – sympathetically, with an enthusiasm to affect change and a belief in the students’ ability to have a better future.The responders are encouraged to ‘belong’ to the text through their glimpses into the personal lives of the students an d the teacher, as well as seeing some of their classroom experiences. Erin Gruwell made a difference through her persistence and hard work, and the audience is positioned to see the same hope for change and promise of a better future that Erin Gruwell works towards. The movie is designed to inspire and educate, and the responder is positioned to leave the movie theatre happy and keen to make a difference in their world.Back 6. Earlier you considered the context of the character/person within the text and in the previous question you considered your own context as audience. Now consider the context of the text itself. The movie ‘Freedom Writers’ is based on the true story of Erin Gruwell and her class. The movie is set in 1994 and was released in cinemas on January 12th, 2007 in the USA and 22nd March in Australia. In Longbeach, California in 1992 they experienced the Rodney King Riots and racial tensions were still high two years later. Following the Rodney King Riots and the O. J. Simpson trial, the mood in our city was unsettling, and on our first day of high school, we had only three things in common: we hated school, we hated our teacher, and we hated each other. Whether it was official or not, we all knew that we had been written off. Low test scores, juvenile hall, alienation, and racial hostility helped us fit the labels the educational system placed on us: â€Å"unteachable,† â€Å"below average,† and â€Å"delinquents. † Somehow, Ms.G recognized our similarities, and used them to unite us. She gave us books written by teenagers that we could relate to, and it was through these books that we began to realize that if we could relate to a little girl who lived on the other side the world, fifty years before we did, we could certainly relate to each other. ’ * The Freedom Writers, http://www. freedomwritersfoundation. org The class produced a book entitled The Freedom Writers Diary, and the Freedom Writers official website (http://www. freedomwritersfoundation. rg ) gives information about the context of the book and the movie, and goes on to tell of the experiences of the group after the events in the movie. This excerpt from the website provides more information about the context of the film: ‘The Freedom Writers Diary is the amazing true story of strength, courage, and achievement in the face of adversity. In the fall of 1994, in Room 203 at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California, an idealistic twenty-four-year-old teacher named Erin Gruwell faced her first group of students, dubbed by the administration as unteachable, at-risk teenagers.This group was unlike any she had ever interacted with. The kids took bets on how long their new teacher would last in their classroom. Then a pivotal event changed their lives forever: when a racial caricature of one of the African American students circulated the classroom, Erin angrily intercepted the drawing and compared it to a Nazi exaggeration of Jews during the Holocaust. To her amazement, the students responded with puzzled looks. Erin was appalled to discover that not one child in her class knew of the Holocaust and its unspeakable horrors.When asked how many had been shot at, however, all raised their hands, and a battle-scar show-and-tell began that shocked Erin even more. Erin Gruwell had touched a nerve, and she ran with it. Knowing that her students were all too familiar with violence, she introduced them to Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl and Zlatas Diary: A Childs Life in Sarajevo. Reluctant at first to read the strange texts, the students of Room 203 soon paralleled their lives to those of Anne and Zlata- teenagers also surrounded by violence- and could not believe their intense connections to the stories.Each student began to keep his or her own anonymous diary, recording tormenting stories of drug use, struggles with physical and mental abuse, reaction to Erin and her unconventional teaching methods. The results were the foundation of a life-changing, spiritually enriching journey that began with a symbolic toast for change, and has not stopped since. From the moment they named themselves the Freedom Writers, the students of Room 203 changed from a group of apathetic delinquents to a closely knit, motivated family with Erin Gruwell as th eir guide.The Freedom Writers worked extremely hard to bring their first influences off the page and into their lives, with funds raised from a Read-a-thon for Tolerance set up by Erin, as well as endless moonlighting jobs that Erin worked, they arranged for Miep Gies, the courageous Dutch woman who sheltered the Frank family, to visit them in California. Soon after, Zlata Filipovic responded to the Freedom Writers many letters inviting her to Long Beach, and she spent five days with them, allowing the Freedom Writers to compare notes with her.This reinforced to the Freedom Writers that voices are heard, change is possible, and a difference can be made in people through the power of words. The Freedom Writers have since continued to spread their story and message throughout the world. In 1997 they held an Echoes of the Soul fund-raising concert to help pay for a trip to Washington, D. C. , where they toured the Holocaust Museum and presented their diary to Secretary of Education Richard Riley. This trip also allowed them to emulate their heroes, the Freedom Riders, by holding a peace march and prayer vigil for victims of intolerance at the Washington Monument. In 1998 they won the Spirit of Anne Frank Award- the Freedom Writers traveled to New York to accept the award. Most recently, in the summer of 1999, one of their most far-reaching goals was achieved. The Freedom Writers and Erin visited Anne Franks house in Amsterdam; the concentration camps Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Chelmno in Poland; and visited Zlata in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Most important all 150 Freedom Writers have graduated from High School and are attending college. ’

Failure is feedback Why objective opinions improve your work

Failure is feedback Why objective opinions improve your work Oftentimes in life, the difference between a crushing setback and an opportunity is perspective. HealthRise Solutions David Farbman believes that a â€Å"failure† is simply a time for feedback, an opportunity to make yourself better. Business is a long and winding road, and the ability to see opportunities for what they are (without lying to yourself) is a crucial skill for anyone trying to navigate it. [Source: Daily Fuel]

English Legal System Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

English Legal System - Essay Example Thus, consistency within the law is both in practice and theory, to a maximum extent is preserved and can be regarded as one of the fundamental demands of the meaning of justice, which is covered by giving equal treatment of like cases, in like manner1. UK can be said to be the birth place of the legal concept namely judicial precedent or stare decisis or ratio decidendi. Now, judicial precedent is widely followed by the common law jurisdictions around the world. The judicial precedent concept is footed upon the rule that once a court has given its verdict in a given background, the analogous verdict should be arrived at in any future litigation where the facts of the cases are alike. The judicial precedent principle is based upon the concept that if a verdict was given by a superior court, then lower court is under obligation to follow it, whereas there is no obligation on the superior court to follow the decision given by a lower court. It is to be remembered that decision given by Lord Atkin in Donoghue v Stevenson2 in 1932 as regards to â€Å"neighbour principle† which has become the reference case for the cases involving ‘negligence’ in the latter period3. A gullible consumer may under proper scenarios recoup damages for harm sustained by a defective product either it be car as held in Andrews v Hopkinson,4 or it may be an underwear as held in Grant v Australian Knitting Mills.5 Likewise , the verdict given in Salomon v Salomon & Co Ltd6 also became a precedent in subsequent cases where it was held that a company is a juristic person , has separate legal entity and a company is different from its members.7 In these cases, the courts have considered only the legal principle involved and not the particular facts of the earlier cases. Thus, the legal principle, which is known as the ratio decidendi is the crux portion of the judicial decision which is a binding precedent.8 An obiter dictum in judicial verdict deals with observation made by a judge in the course of litigation, which is not essential for the final verdict and hence is not regarded as a binding precedent. For instance, in R v Howe & Bannister9, it was held by the House of Lords that defence of duress could not be extended to murder crime and this has been regarded as the ratio decidendi of the case. Further, it was observed by the House of Lords, whether the defence should be made available to those accused who engaged in an attempt of murder and observed obiter dicta that the defence of duress should not be made available to the attempted murder also10. It is to be noted that obiter dicta is also referred by other names namely persuasive precedent, which refers to the legal principles observed by the judges which just offer some elucidation on the subject. Thus, persuasive precedents may also emanate from lower courts and also from the verdicts of other jurisdiction11. In R v Gotts12 , the House of Lords was of the view that justification under duress cannot be extended for

What do Advertisements Tell Young People They Should Value Essay

What do Advertisements Tell Young People They Should Value - Essay Example Advertising has been part of American life for centuries, and has certainly always had some kind of effect on the behaviour of Americans in a wide variety of ways. Throughout the past ten to twenty years, however, the amount of advertising exposure and kind of advertising has changed significantly, and may have an increased effect on American youths. It is incredibly difficult to construct a causal relationship between advertising and behaviour, something that advertisers have used to their advantage to fight regulation throughout history, from the cigarette era to today. The problems of determining causal relationships are myriad, but most simply rest on the well known idea that correlation is not causation: wearing your favorite team’s jersey and them winning does not indicate any causal relationship between your jersey choice and your team’s success. Furthering the complexity of this problem is the fact that advertising in fact mirrors many of the issues inherent to many forms of media, such as film and television, in, for instance, constructing unrealistic ideas of beauty. Advertisers, for instance, are often blamed on helping to cause eating disorders, while there may be many different societal and media factors at work in those issues. To construct a causal relationship, one must therefore go much further than simply analyzing correlation (though correlation certainly plays some part in the analysis). Through analyzing the behaviour advertisers, the explosion of new media, the psychological makeup of young adults, and the correlation between youth behaviour and advertising, it is possible to construct a causal relationship between advertiser’s construction of the ideals of beauty and negative behaviour among young adults, such as the development of eating disorders. The first thing that must be unequivocally establishes is the fact that advertising does, in fact, affect behaviour. This is its whole point of the entire industry, to lea d people to buy products. There are various interpretations of the role of advertising. The most generous would say that advertising merely influences behaviour through demonstrations of a product’s usefulness to its client; advertising affects behaviour merely through informing (). The least generous would say that advertising twists people’s emotions, world view, and so on, in order to manipulate them into buying a given product (). The truth is probably somewhere in between, that advertising does rely on a product’s abilities, but that advertising also manipulates viewers to a significant extent. That advertising affects people’s behaviour can be seen merely by the size of the industry: it is a multi-hundred billion dollar industry worldwide (Shaman, 2012), and a single thirty second spot in the Super Bowl can sell for â€Å"upwards of $5 million† (Shaman, 2012). There is no way corporations would spend this kind of money on advertising if they were not confident in its

Research paper on mapreduce Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

On mapreduce - Research Paper Example Reduce collects relevant parts from the locations where the map function occurred and return the result to HDFS. IBM defines MapReduce based on its association with Hadoop (IBM 1). The company affirms that MapReduce denotes two distinct roles performed by Hadoop programs. The initial role pertains to map job. It engages data and changes it into another set by breaking down individual aspects into value pairs (IBM 1). Reduce job engages the output generated by a map and engages it to produces smaller value pairs. Based on IBM definition, it is clear that MapReduce is a popular programming technology that allows the use of many computers in order to process huge amount of data. It helps in coordinating tasks in order to avoid issues such as input problems and harmonization delays. One can perform various tasks such as data mining and graph processing using this concept. The concept is popular in industries and conducting complex researches. An example of commonly use MapReduce implementations is Hadoop. Vianna, Almeida & Kuno (1) further define Map Reduce based on its sorting process. The authors indicate that when one has many sets of records and he needs to sort or process them in a specific order, he may use MapReduce. MapReduce is an invention that allows an individual to use Mappers that have sorting keys that dive the data set based on the values associated with them. Vianna, Almeida & Kuno (1) further define MapReduce as a process involving the combination all the sorted data. This concept is usually applied in data analysis. The authors provide an example of MapReduce as used in data filtering. They indicate that when one has sets of records that require arrangements to ensure they meet a certain condition, he can filter them using MapReduce. For instance, one can filter the records using Mappers which produce transformed versions of the