Hiring Outsiders Essay

This is why companies look to hire people from the outside. They do this because they are looking with people who will bring unique skills to the company. Also, it can give the company new ideas and new energy for the work place. The article states that â€Å"the thought processes are common among workers and bosses, and  a new study  shows how they play out. The study, by  Matthew Bidwell, an assistant management professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, found that external hires, on average, make around 18 percent more money than internal employees with similar positions. I found this statement to be a very interesting point when it comes to the debate on whether or not to hire or not from the outside. It definitely shows that the numbers are better for profit, so that is definitely a big positive when it comes down to the question for managers who ask should they hire externally? However, later on in the article it states that in that same study, th ey perform less well in the first two years and are also more likely to leave or be let go. This is why companies don’t hire from the outside, because it takes to long for the employees to get use to the company they were hired at, rather then the one they were doing well at previously, this is one con of hiring from the outside. There are many other disadvantages about hiring from the outside as well. One of these factors would be it increases the chances of the work place morality to drop. What I mean by this is that if the people in the work place of the current company they are at hire other people for positions they are qualified for, this would possibly tick people within the company ff, and maybe even question those people if they should stay with the company or not. I remember you gave an example in class about how you were brought in for a company and one employee even confronted you and said how you took his job. This can definitely make the work place very uncomfortable for employees at the job. Just because a person did good at their current job does not mean they will automatically do good for the new company that hires them. The new employee will have to adapt to the new culture of the company and this can be very hard for new employees. Also, giving employees a chance to be promoted if they work hard is a benefit of hiring from the inside. This incentive definitely gives people something to work hard for and try to earn. I know for me, I don’t want to switch jobs a lot and if I were working at a place I would love the opportunity to keep moving up in the company if I was working hard. The article talks about how people within the company know the â€Å"do’s and don’ts of the company. † New people that companies bring in are unaware of what to do in certain situations and probably don’t have a very good idea of what the company is about compared to people that work within company. I definitely understand about what companies are trying to do from the outside, but some companies are blind to the fact that it will take a while for the new employees to gel in with everyone and the work place of the company. Overall, of course there is many benefits that include hiring from the outside, which include fresh skills and ideas. But the article states that Professor Groysberg says employers need to be much more strategic about hiring so that the organization has the right mix of old and new. This is a very important statement due to the fact that a company must decide is it really important that they absolutely need someone from the outside rather than someone who is already working there already? For employees that put in their two weeks because they are unhappy with the company hiring from the outside, the article has a very good solution for this. In the last meeting, it is important to ask what can we do to keep you here. Most of the time, people will say a raise. A good answer to this question would be we understand you want that but we don’t know if that’s possible, what else can we offer to you that is important to you? Answers like these will definitely help people from quitting to staying at the company.

‘Cousin Kate’ by Christina Rossetti Essay

This Victorian poem is about the narrator (a fallen woman), the Lord and Kate. It is a ballad which tells the story from the narrator’s perspective about being shunned by society after her ‘experiences’ with the lord. The poem’s female speaker recalls her contentment in her humble surroundings until the local ‘Lord of the Manor’ took her to be his lover. He discarded her when she became pregnant and his affections turned to another village girl, Kate, whom he then married. Although the speaker’s community condemned the speaker as a ‘fallen’ woman, she reflects that her love for the lord was more faithful than Kate’s. She is proud of the son she bore him and is sure that the man is unhappy that he and Kate remain childless. Some readers think that she feels more betrayed by her cousin than the lord. This poem is a dramatic monologue written in the Victorian era. Structure The poem is written in first person narrative. It has 6 stanzas of 8 lines: One stanza each on the narrator, the Lord and Kate; stanza 4 contrasts the position of the narrator and Kate; stanza 5 criticises Kate and stanza 6 focuses on the narrator’s triumph at having a child. Each stanza is the same length and each line has a similar rhythm, giving it a ballad-like feel. It could also be conveying the strength and perseverance of the narrator who has to face life in conflict with the expectations of Victorian society. Note that the tone changes as the poem progresses – regret, accusation, bitterness, triumph. The rhyme scheme always connects the B (2nd line) of each couplet. E. g Stanza one – AB/CB/DB/DB. Sometimes the first line of the couplet is rhymed. The rhyme emphasises the last world to aid meaning. The regular rhyme could also suggest that narrator has not only been dominated by the Lord (because men and in particular men of a higher social standing) but is also trapped with Victorian social conventions (she is now a fallen woman in conflict with the values of her society). Sometimes the first line is rhymed as in Stanza 3 – AB/AB/CB/AB. In this case the words ‘Kate’, ‘gate’ and ‘estate’ are stressed in order to convey the way Kate has been elevated from her position in society. However in stanza 5 this rhyme of ‘true’ and ‘you’ contrasts the narrator’s strength of feeling with Kate’s. ‘Cousin Kate’ is written with an iambic rhythm. Generally, one line of the poem has three feet, and the next has four. The poem, therefore, generally follows the following pattern: da dum da dum da dum da dum da dum da dum da dum Iambic rhythms often follow the natural rhythm of speech, a little like a heartbeat. If we apply this to one of Rossetti’s lines, it reads as follows: â€Å"Because you were so good and pure†. Therefore the meaning of the words is captured in the line as specific words are stressed. The repetition of: ‘Why did a great lord find me out’, conveys the anger and bewilderment of the speaker at her change of circumstances, whilst the phrase: ‘good and pure’ has a hollow ring by its second occurrence. Thereafter, repeated phrases are altered to highlight the contrasting situations of Kate and the speaker: The community ‘call’ Kate ‘good and pure’, but ‘call’ the speaker ‘an outcast thing’. Kate ‘sit[s] in gold’, the speaker ‘sit[s] †¦ in dust’. The image of dust connects to a life of poverty and also suggests how she has been soiled by society. Whereas ‘gold’ suggests that her cousin has riches. Kate’s fate is to ‘sit †¦ and sing’, the speaker’s to ‘sit and howl’. This suggests the mental anguish that the narrator is experiencing at being abandoned whereas to ‘sing’ indicates that Kate is content. However, the speaker believes her ‘love was true’, while Kate’s ‘love was writ in sand’ suggesting that her love is stronger than Kate’s. The echoed structure in the final stanza – that Kate has ‘not got’ and is ‘not like to get’ the gift of a child – emphasises the speaker’s sense of triumph. Language The speaker’s questions in the first stanza express her anger and confusion at the experiences she has had to endure: ‘Why did a great lord find me out†¦ Why did a great lord find me out? ’ She suggests that before the arrival of the ‘great lord’, she was happy and ‘contented’ (line 3). She was not looking for a new situation in life. It came unexpectedly. The idea that the lord filled her heart with care suggests that she had less to worry about previously. She is angry that he made her anxious instead of happy and took her away from her friends, her ‘cottage mates’ (line 3). She questions her cousin Kate in stanza 4 suggesting that she loved the lord whereas her cousin did not marry for love. The speaker addresses her questions, laments and moans to Kate. She begins the third verse, ‘O Lady Kate, my cousin Kate’ and the fifth, ‘O cousin Kate’. Throughout, she employs a tone of accusation, repeatedly using the word ‘you’ as she compares Kate to herself. In the last four lines, the speaker draws her attention away from her bitterness at Kate and addresses her son. She calls him ‘my shame, my pride’ (line 45). The oxymoron highlights the conflict that she experiences at loving the Lord and her son but also knowing that she has defied moral convention. Through active and passive verbs Rossetti emphasises the powerlessness of women in Victorian society by associating the lord with a series of actions which take the initiative. He ‘f[ound]’ the speaker ‘out’ / ‘praise[d]’ her / ‘lured’ her / ‘wore’ her / ‘changed’ her / ‘cast’ her ‘by’ / ‘fooled’ her. These are harsh actions, which become more ominous with regard to Kate. Like a stalker, the lord: ‘saw’ her / ‘chose’ her’ / ‘watched’ her / ‘lifted’ her ‘To sit with him’ / ‘bound’ her/ ‘won’ her / ‘bought’ her. Like a hunter, the lord ‘f[ound]’ the speaker ‘out’, ‘lured’ her, then ‘chose’ his next victim in Kate, whom he ‘watched’, then picked up (‘lifted’) and ‘bound’. Both women are referred to as birds, with Kate seeming to be trussed and bound by her fine clothes and wedding ring. In ‘Cousin Kate’, the dove image draws on these ideas of hope and fulfilment and is a symbol of purity that stands in direct contrast to the contaminated state the speaker finds herself as she describes herself as ‘an unclean thing’ (line 15). However, she acknowledges that the tenderness associated with the dove is no match for Kate’s ‘stronger wing’. Even though the speaker claims that she ‘would  have spit’ and ‘[would] not have taken’ the lord, the fact that this is in the future conditional tense indicates that the reality of the situation is in fact very different – she will always be powerless. Alliteration is used throughout the poem: The soft innocence of the speaker before her life changed is conveyed by the soft M of ‘maiden’, ‘mates’ and ‘mindful’ in stanza 1 When the speaker claims that she was led to the lord’s house to lead a ‘shameless shameful life’, the sibilance in this line reinforces the joining together of oxymorons that these words perform. It also reflects the hushed manner in which the speaker was ensnared by the lord, taken in, then later cast aside The speaker’s anger shines through the harsh consonants of ‘Lady Kate, my cousin Kate’ In the final stanza, the speaker emphasises the close bond she shares with her son when she asks that he ‘Cling closer, closer yet’ (line 46). The emphasis here highlights her fear and together with the repetition of the word ‘closer’, suggests that it is for her own comfort, as well as her son’s, that they remain together. Strong images are used to convey the predicament of the narrator. She claims that the lord considered her as a ‘plaything’ (line 12) whom he could treat how he liked without any regard for her feelings. Much like the ‘silken knot’ (line 12) he wore around his neck (a cravat or tie), he treated her as a fashion accessory he could use and then cast away, rather than as an individual with her own needs. The speaker recognises that the lord ‘changed me like a glove’ (line 13). He used her and moulded her into a shape that suited him and then, like a glove that no longer pleases, dispensed with her completely. A glove is an intimate and personal object that fits itself around its user. By describing herself as a glove, the speaker acknowledges that she lost sight of her own needs and desires in an attempt to please and suit the lord. Essay title: Explain how Rossetti creates sympathy for the narrator in ‘Cousin Kate’. Use examples from the poem to support your answers.

History Of Bloodstain Patterns Essay

Function of bloodstain pattern analysis Bloodstain pattern interpretation/analysis has been around for many years but has only really been recognized in the past several decades. This interpretation/analysis is like a very important tool that an investigator or forensic scientist may use to help them better understand what happened or what did not happen in a case where there was bloodshed. Discoverable through the examination of bloodstain pattern The information that can be discovered or obtained when examining bloodstain patterns can help in apprehending a suspect, corroborating a witnesses statement, interrogating suspects, allowing for reconstruction of past events and lastly but probably the most important exonerating an accused. All bloodstains can provide important specifics to an event that occurred during an incident, so they are always examined. This is a very crucial part of an investigation, but it is never 100%, errors do occur. â€Å"Static Aftermath† There is such a thing called â€Å"static aftermath.† What an analyst evaluates is the static aftermath of an event; the shapes, volumes, patterns, number and size of bloodstains and their relationships to the scene. Timeline of bloodstain pattern analysis Surprisingly to me the study of bloodstain patterns has been going on since the 1800’s. On the following page is a time line showing the history of bloodstain patterns interpretation/analysis. The timeline I made begins in the 1860’s and goes through the 1970’s, not every significant moment is included on this particular timeline. 1970’s – MacDonell worked under a LEAA grant, and completed 3 different articles through the 1990’s. He has trained many in law enforcement and has developed courses to continue to train analysts. 1970’s – MacDonell worked under a LEAA grant, and completed 3 different articles through the 1990’s. He has trained many in law enforcement and has developed courses to continue to train analysts. 1863 -The Beck’s wrote â€Å"Elements of Medical Jurisprudence,† which discussed cases in which bloodstain pattern analysis was utilized. 1863 -The Beck’s wrote â€Å"Elements of Medical Jurisprudence,† which discussed cases in which bloodstain pattern analysis was utilized. 1939 – Balthazard is known for doing original research and experimentation with bloodstains and patterns. 1939 – Balthazard is known for doing original research and experimentation with bloodstains and patterns. 1882 – Professor Charles Tidy published â€Å"Legal Medicine.† 1882 – Professor Charles Tidy published â€Å"Legal Medicine.† 1955 – Dr. Kirk submitted bloodstain evidence and findings in a case; this was significant in recognition of bloodstain evidence by the legal system. 1955 – Dr. Kirk submitted bloodstain evidence and findings in a case; this was significant in recognition of bloodstain evidence by the legal system. 1895 – Piotrowski published a book concerning blood stains from blows to the head. 1895 – Piotrowski published a book concerning blood stains from blows to the head. 1880 – Henry Faulds published, â€Å"On-skin Furrows of the Hand,† described bloody fingerprints and their likely usage to identify the criminal. 1880 – Henry Faulds published, â€Å"On-skin Furrows of the Hand,† described bloody fingerprints and their likely usage to identify the criminal. 1856 – Lassaigne wrote a paper that included discussion of marks that appeared to be bloodstains but was from insects. 1856 – Lassaigne wrote a paper that included discussion of marks that appeared to be bloodstains but was from insects.

The study of product development as the core in transforming medium Literature review

The study of product development as the core in transforming medium size businesses into large multi-national companies - Literature review Example Six different theoretical frameworks have been formulated to explain organizational transformation. They include life cycle, evolutionary, dialectical, teleological, social cognition and cultural approaches to change. Evolutionary models include social evolutionary and biological models. Here it is assumed that situational variables, circumstances and environment faced by each organization determine the change in each organization. Here very little role is given to people in determining the direction of change and change is considered as very slow process.The later version of these models assume managers having ability to respond and anticipate changes.Based on this theory, mergers are considered as a form of organizational transformation to respond to forces outside an organization. Through mergers, there can be overall change in the organizational structure of an existing corporation in a mature product market as a part of its growth strategy to survive in the industry. This happens when the results of the past investment decisions will not be able to produce assets or resources that can finance the activities. Thus, the process of mergers and acquisitions involves the reduction in the resources as a part of the reallocation to new growth areas. In the case of mergers, the firms receive a surplus than they obtain individually through the economies of scale. This surplus increases when the product demand is high and falls when it is low. ... Thus, the process of mergers and acquisitions involves the reduction in the resources as a part of the reallocation to new growth areas. In the case of mergers, the firms receive a surplus than they obtain individually through the economies of scale. This surplus increases when the product demand is high and falls when it is low (Lambrecht and Myers, 2004). In addition to these, during the economic downturns, the unproductive assets existing needs to be sold off to shareholders. The hesitancy of the management in doing so results in takeover activities (Maksimovic and Phillips, 2000).The takeover results in selling the unproductive assets to the acquirer of the firm and thereby reaching the proceeds of the takeovers to the shareholders. Thus mergers result in cost savings and revenue enhancement. The main criticisms of the evolutionary models include their base on mathematical field and not human fields, failure to explain change as a social phenomena, difficulty in linking environme ntal and organizational variables, etc(Collins,1998). The teleological models see change as the phenomenon resulting from the leaders’ perception of necessity to change. Here change is assumed to be dependent on internal decisions in accompany instead of external changes. This model gives the central role to leader and considers leader as a rational agent and change is explained on the basis of scientific management tools. Thus these models are considered as more human than the evolutionary models (Brill and Worth, 1997). This theory focuses on the need for leaders to motivate the followers rather than imposing their behaviour on followers (Trice and Beyer,

The technological and cultural changes between the relationship of Essay

The technological and cultural changes between the relationship of Telegraph and Facebook - Essay Example The advent of Facebook has made communication and meeting new people easy, businesses have grown and cultures have evolved due to this. Some primitive cultures have been eradicated. In the essay we shall be seeking to establish the evolution from Telegraph to Facebook and the technological and cultural changes they have brought by first understanding their innovations their uses and how the telegraph necessitated or facilitated the innovation of Facebook The history of the telegraph dates back to 1794 where Claude Chappe invented a non- electric telegraph. This kind of telegraph used a flag based alphabet, a semaphore and it was wholly dependent on a line of a sight communication. Later this kind of telegraph was replaced by an electric telegraph. In Bavaria, Samuel Soemmering used gold electrodes of wire under water and the message could be read by the amount of gas that was produced by the electrodes. In USA, Harrison Dyar invented the first telegraph in 1828. He used a paper tape that was chemically treated to burn the dashes and the dots (Jennifer, 1989). Joseph Henry demonstrated the power of the electromagnet, which was first discovered by a British William Sturgeon. He sent an electronic current for over a mile, which activated an electromagnet and in turn caused the bell to ring. Samuel F. B. Morse in 1830s started experimenting by sending communication through electromagnetic signals. In 1838, he successfully sent a message from Morristown to New Jersey. He was later granted funds by the congress to help him install a line of communication between Washington DC and Baltimore and he stuck wires between the two cities. The first message he sent from the Supreme Court Chambers to his assistant Alfred Vail in Baltimore was â€Å"What hath God wrought† (Marland, 1964) The telegraph from then became part of the communication and an accepted part of American life. People used to send and receive messages from far distances using the

Implementation brief Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Implementation brief - Essay Example In this similar context, the investing ideas for fitness centres include incorporating fitness centre through swimming pool, indoor game, sports equipment shop as well as boxing club amenities through which generating greater revenues for the organisation will be possible along with attaining diversification benefits. These fitness dimensions would further assist in hotel’s chaining to attract customers by rendering the aforementioned value-added facilities. This proposed investment implementation idea of incorporating various fitness dimensions shall also enable the hotel chain to maintain profitability by engaging effective sales through the utilisation of these services (Entrepreneur Media, Inc., 2013). The report of the investment implementation brief therefore focuses on identifying the impact to be created by the investment idea on the overall organisational structure or departments of East Nest Hotels along with a time plan for the implementation of the strategy. The re port also presents a brief idea regarding the linkage between the investment plan with other departments along with a milestone analysis and risk plan to justify the implementation benefits of the proposed initiative. ... or games facility and a sport shopping shop, it can be stated that such initiatives will be helpful in determining the degree of demands for the products and facilities offered in the market by the organisation. It will also have an impact on the degree of competition that an organisation faces in order to sustain its competitive position in the market, irrespective of the customers’ buying behaviours. It can also be stated that the investment idea will further help in maintaining the margin of profits allowing greater competitive advantages to the company. However, when implementing the plan, the regulations or policies currently performed within the organisation and its labour power can be taken into consideration, which has been affecting the expenses as well as competencies of the organisation (Madhura, 2007). In this context, the Human Resource (HR) manager will be responsible in addressing the issue of internal equity, i.e. in evaluating the resources for advertising the job profile, development of plan for ensuring the existing employees are not reprimanded with low remuneration for failing in achieving the targets of the additional activities assigned to them in lieu of the investment idea. In this particular context, the HR team will be held responsible in conducting regular training sessions for individuals through consultations, designing of programs, instructional sessions as well as obtaining feedbacks for the proper implementation of the requisite activities needed to implement the investment idea. Undoubtedly, such change would require additional manpower and investments to recruit competent trainers through internal recruitment and external labour market as well, as per their qualifications in providing fitness training program for individuals. It can

Personal Development Plan that Would Help in Studies Scholarship Essay

Personal Development Plan that Would Help in Studies - Scholarship Essay Example There are only 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week, and like most students, I want to do many things like enjoying my life whilst I learn and do well in my studies. If I do not manage time very well, I will not achieve both, and I put my long-term goals and objectives in danger. The starting point of time management is having clear goals in life. I would like to begin my personal strategic analysis by defining my personal mission and vision statements and the core values that guide me in life. I define my Mission as the basic purpose of why I think I exist. I define my Vision as my aspiration in life, what I want to achieve in the future. I define my Core Values as the standards of personal and professional behaviour that will guide me in realising my mission and attaining my vision (Cottrell 12). I believe that without a clear direction of where I want to go, why I want to go there, and the basic rules that will guide me in this journey of my life, it will be difficult for me to reach my destination, much less know how I will get there (Maxwell 168). I always try to find a reason for everything I do, and in this story of my life, I feel that I have a specific mission that it is my purpose, my destiny that is mine alone to fulfil. If this is my purpose, how and what do I see myself doing in the future What is my vision My vision is to be one of the best professionals in the world in whatever it is I decide to do. I have many interests, and I think it would be too early to be too specific. At this stage, I aim to be good in what I do, and for this, I need to learn how to manage my time well. The first step is to have a clear set of priorities so that when there is a conflict between two or more activities, I would do whichever is more important according to the priorities that I have.  

Innovation in nursing IP phase 2 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Innovation in nursing IP phase 2 - Assignment Example Answers for Appendix A are: 1) 7, 2) 6, 3) 7, 4) 8, 5) 6, 6) 7, 8) 6, 9) 7, 10) 8, 11) 7, 12) 7, 13) 8, 14) 8, 15) 7, 16) 8, and 17) 8. After computing for the score, the mean for the exercise is 6.35. It is just a few points above half the scale. There is still room for improvements towards innovation in medical nursing care. The result may not be as impressive as initially expected but theoretical assessment does not literally translate to actual assessment which matters the most (Endsley, 2010). Strong points would be willingness to learn and open-mindedness. One would strongly consider those characteristics in a person who is working in the medical field as one would take in instructions from physicians. A single mistake into executing the instruction may put a patient’s life in jeopardy. Willingness to learn is somewhat associated with the fact that though one is knowledgeable in the field, there would be breakthroughs and changes which are needed to be executed. Learning, especially in the medical field, does not end upon graduation. There would be changes in the way medications would be administered to patients which are very crucial. Learning is not just the important thing at this aspect but also being properly informed. The two goes hand in hand. As for open-mindedness, there would be come a time that a nurse would be getting orders from interns and/or specialists who could be not just younger in age but also younger in exposure to the actual hospital or clini c. At this point, though the idea and concept of respect should always be present at a working environment, it is not always those who are employed longer who would get the final decision. This characteristic is truly crucial in the nursing world. As for weakness, one could point out lack of confidence and occasional stubbornness. Methods of expanding and enhancing innovations should be more inclined towards hand-on learning. It would give nurses

Ethical issues in the workplace Personal Statement - 1

Ethical issues in the workplace - Personal Statement Example In their ethical code of conduct, organizations define specific rules related to employment, business, transactions, customers and clients. These rules not only provide a direction to the employees and organizational allies but also set right expectations with the customers, shareholders and clients. These rules also include laws related to employment such as anti-discrimination, employee wages, equal employment opportunities, union rights, workplace safety and security etc. Ethical organizational structures establish strong procedures to address employees’ grievances, complaints and other issues. Organizations also specify rules related to organization’s commitment and responsibility towards the environment, society and the nation as well as any other governing bodies that it is a part of. Another important element in an ethical organizational structure is its hierarchy, which has to define clear responsibilities to all its employees and should establish rules of job and accountability as well as reporting structures. Ethical organizations also strive to maintain accurate and complete data related to finance, performance, income tax, and information about their employees in a secure manner. In short, an ethical organizational structure is a comprehensive model of an ideal organization that benefits employees, society and the nations where it

'Teams are seen as a necessary condition in contemporary Essay

'Teams are seen as a necessary condition in contemporary organisations, but are they effective' - Essay Example A team behaves in a peculiar manner which moves toward a specific goal. The performance output given by a team is always ahead of that given by an individual. Generally a team comprises of many people focusing on a specified target. The individuals in a team will be having individual skills. Thus a team is a collection of strengths and good range of abilities. Because of this reason, in a team, for every situation there will be at least a person who can deal with it. Also in a team flaws or pitfalls can easily be spotted and corrected. As there are many persons focusing on a same target they will be very cautious about every move and hence the mistake done by an individual will be easily found by another one. (Scholtes et al. 2003). So, this paper will discuss how teams are seen as a necessary condition in contemporary organizations and how they are effective for organizational process, and how effectiveness can be further optimized. In an efficient team, the ultimate responsibility is rested on everyone’s shoulder. And the team is structured in such a way that whoever having strength in a specified area takes more responsibility in that area. One more interesting fact about a team is â€Å"Motivation†. A powerful motivating force is created amidst a good team. It never let its team mates to go down. Also it makes the team members feel proud to be a part of such a team. (West 2002, 9). Teams, also have another face for it. That is â€Å"Team conflict†. Conflicts are often mistaken within a team which is a bitter fact to be accepted. But conflicts too could turn desirable, provided the team members look into a conflict as an outcome of indifference in their thoughts or views. And after that they have to take relevant actions on how to overcome that indifference. When such kind of attitude started developing amidst the team members, conflicts even turn to be a positive factor in a team work. ( West 2002, 9) Self directed work teams are empowered

Machhavelli and the concepts of War Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Machhavelli and the concepts of War - Essay Example However, in either of these considerations for traditional, modern and post-modern war, Niccolo Machiavelli was renowned for its remarkable concepts about war in general. It is the purpose of this paper to emphasize the whole point of Machiavelli on the concept of war. Thus, the proponent tries to emphasize Machiavelli as a diplomat and together with his role on the concepts of war. Machiavelli was engaged in trying to make government leader aware about the perils and the good things about war. However, part of such meaningful understanding about war is to elaborately discuss his idea on the subject matter. In order to understand him further on his engagement in the concept of war, his various writing on ‘The Prince’, ‘the Discourses’ and ‘The Art of War’ all consist of ideas and theories about politics, human nature, the concept of war and other societal issues. He is indeed a diplomat on the concept of war in his own ways. How to exactly identify Machiavelli as a diplomat on the concept of war is the main point of this section. Part of the discussion is the inclusion of various analyses about Machiavelli as a diplomat on the concept of war based on his works. A diplomat needs to have the needed skills in making people entirely agree with his or her idea. Machiavelli was able to make it by trying to emphasize that war in his books is only required if there is a need to do so. There are various risks in trying to come up with war if in the end it is justified that more destructions than advantage are obtained. Niccolo Machiavelli without question was highly skilled on the business of making agreements or making people agree on his concept of war. There are other various thinkers like Machiavelli but his way of thinking on the concept of war was able to gain various political considerations until the present time. Machiavelli always looked at the concern of the country and its citizens. Since he is

Philosophy - Plato Essay Example for Free

Philosophy Plato Essay 2. What is the role of philosophy for Socrates and why is it valuable in itself? Explain three argu- ments Socrates gives for the immortality of the soul. Briefly explain Cebes and Simmias’ coun- terarguments using examples from the text for support. Finally, based on your understanding of the Phaedo give your interpretation of the last words of Socrates and back it up by citing the text. In Plato’s The Last Days of Socrates, Phaedo gives an account of the last few hours of Socrates’ life, to Echecrates when he encounters him after Socrates’ death. In Phaedo’s telling of the story, we learn about why Philosophy was so important to Socrates, and why he spent his final hours explaining his arguments about the body and the soul, to his two friend Cebes and Simmias. Socrates presents four separate arguments as to how the soul lives separately from the body, the first being the theory of opposites, seconded by the theory of recollection, and followed by his theory of Affinity. After he presents his first three arguments, Simmias and Cebes interject with their opinions and counterarguments to Socrates’ first three, which is then when Socrates comes up with his fourth and final argument – Theory of the Forms. The last and final argument is one of the most important arguments that Socrates will make throughout the whole story. Phaedo ends his account to Echecrates by telling us of the final words of Socrates. Socrates was a well known Greek philosopher, known chiefly through the writings of his students, such as Plato who wrote the novel in which we are reflecting. Socrates did not write down any of his ideas or knowledge, but instead instilled it upon other people who took the re- sponsibility of writing it down for themselves. During Socrates’ final hours, we find out why Phi- losophy was so important to him. He argues that the soul is a separate entity from the body, and that we must separate the soul as far as possible from it. He relates this to death, by saying that death is this freeing and parting of the soul from the body. Socrates states, on page 100 line 67d exactly why Philosophy is important – â€Å"†¦those that go in for philosophy in the correct way who are always eager to set the soul free; what philosophers practice is exactly this, the freeing and parting of soul from body. † He believes that Philosophers live their lives being as close to death as possible, â€Å"those occupied correctly in philosophy really do practice dying, and death is less frightening for them than for anyone else (Plato 67a). † He states that if philosophers desire that one thing, separating the soul from the body, then they must always be close to death and to nev- er be afraid of it. Socrates presents his initial argument that â€Å"everything comes to be through opposite things coming to be from no other source than their own opposites (Plato 70e). † He believed that everything that exists, has an opposite and must have came from that opposite. He provided examples such as â€Å"the beautiful is presumably opposite to the ugly† or â€Å"when something comes to be bigger, it must be from being smaller before (Plato 70e). † In explaining this argument, he presents that between the two members of the pair, there are two-processes for the pair to come into being. In order for something to be big, it had to come from being small, it increased in size but it could go the opposite way and decrease in size as well. This argument relates to the soul and the body by saying that being alive has an opposite, which is being dead. In order for the op-posites argument to be logical, one must be able to come back from the dead and be alive, so it is from the dead that living things come to be alive. This leads us to believe that the soul is immor- tal, and existed before the body. Socrates sums up this argument by stating, â€Å"the living have come from the dead no less than the dead from the living; and I think it seemed to us that if this were the case, it would be sufficient proof that the souls of the dead must be somewhere from where they were to be born again (Plato 72a). † Following the argument about opposites, Socrates poses the question that if we are going to recollect something, we must have had knowledge about it at a previous point in time. This is then the second argument that Plato recounts in his telling of Socrates’ last hours. What he is pre- senting in this argument, is the fact that when we recognize something, it brings us back to think- ing about something else. So when we recognize this first object, it triggers our minds to remem- ber something that is associated with that object. Therefore, when we remember something we are recollecting back to a previous state or time or object. He argues that these recollections canat are unlike the items we have recollected. He sums this thought up by saying, â€Å"So long as, on seeing one thing, you come to have something else in mind, like or unlike, from seeing the first one. What occurs must be recollection (Plato 74d). † He doesn’t stop at this, but then goes on to explain that we had this knowledge before we even obtained our senses. When we were born, we obtained the ability to see, hear, and possess all of the other senses, but we had this knowledge before our senses, so therefore we had this knowledge before we were even born. This argument leads back to his original point that the soul exists outside of the body. â€Å"Whereas if we get our knowledge before we are born but lose it on being born, and then later through the use of our perceptions we get back those pieces of knowledge that we had at some previous time, what we call learning would be a matter of getting back knowledge that was ours anyway; and we’d be surely correct if we called that recollection (Plato 75e). † Socrates’ third argument before Cebes and Simmias provide their counterarguments is his theory of Affinity. This suggests that we must distinguish between things that are material, visi- ble, and perishable and things that are immaterial, invisible, and immortal. In this case, the body is the thing that is perishable, while the soul is immortal and lives on. While arguing this to Sim- mias and Cebes, Socrates states, â€Å"the soul is something that’s very like what’s divine, deathless, the object of intellect, uniform, undissolved, and always in exactly the same state as it ever was; while body in its turn is something very like what’s human, mortal, mindless, multiform, tending to dissolution, and never the same as it was before (Plato 80b). † This is yet another argument that proves his point that when the body dies, the soul still lives. He brings up the point in this argu- ment that the soul may wander, but eventually it is put into a different body or it will spend its time with the Gods. After his third argument, Simmias and Cebes finally interject and give their counterargu- ments to Socrates. Simmias is the first to present his counterargument, by comparing the topic of the soul existing after the death of the body, to the attunement of an instrument. He states, â€Å"The argument would go, there’d be no way that the lyre could continue to exist as it does, with the strings broken, or that the strings could, while the attunement, which is of the same nature and the same kin as the divine and deathless, had already perished, before the mortal (Plato 86a-c). † He is comparing the body to an instrument, and the soul to the attunement. When the instrument is no longer there, if it was completely broken or burned, there would no longer be a tune. The tune of one instrument does not just travel to a separate instrument when the original one is gone. Cebes then gives his counterargument, not agreeing with the one Simmias just made and not ful- ly agreeing with all of Socrates’ arguments. Cebes argument states that the soul does still live on after the body is dead, but that it is not entirely immortal. He then compares the body to a cloak and the soul to the body, stating â€Å"someone might say the very same things about soul and body as about the weaver and his cloak, that the soul is something long-lived, while the body is a weaker and shorter-lived thing, but all the same, he’d say, every single soul wears out many bod-ies, especially if it has a long life for if the body is in flux, and is perishing even while the per- son is alive, still the soul always weaves again whats being worn out. (Plato 87e). † This argu- ment he presents states that a soul can live through many bodies, as a person can go through many cloaks each as they wear out. He finishes his argument by stating that â€Å"there’s no justifica- tion yet for relying on this argument of yours, and it gives us no reassurance that when we die our soul still exists somewhere (Plato 88a). † Socrates final words at the end of Phaedo’s account were, â€Å"Crito, we owe a cock to As-clepius; pay our debt and no forgetting. † According to Greek myth, the cock symbolizes a peace offering to the god Asclepius in order to receive a cure. In this case, Socrates was getting ready to die. This could mean only two things to me, the first being that he was being cured of his life by dying and being closer than ever to the one thing that philosophers dedicate their time to, sep- arating his soul from his body and having that soul be free. The second interpretation I came up with is that he offered this cock to the god Asclepius to avoid any misfortune after he dies, while his soul is still living. All in all, Socrates had many deep and thought provoking arguments as to why the soul and the body are separate, and why the soul continues to live after the body has perished. Whether or not these arguments seemed logical, or were very believable, Socrates spent his whole life dedicated to the ideas of Philosophy, and he spent his final hours instilling his beliefs upon those who cared about him. Socrates died for what he believed in, and that’s what makes Phaedo’s account of his life so interesting. Works Cited: Plato, , and Christopher Rowe. The Last Day of Socrates. New York: Penguin Classics, 2010. 87-169. Print.

The Role Of Health Ngos Health And Social Care Essay

The Role Of Health Ngos Health And Social Care Essay Health care in Nigeria is structured along, and administered through the universal three tiers: the primary level run by the local government, the secondary by the state and the tertiary by the federal government (FMOH 2005). The contribution of Nigerias health sector to the national economy remains poorly defined, and as a result Nigeria was ranked a dismal 187th position among the 191 United Nation member state (WHO 2000).Health care facilities are inadequate in Nigeria (Yohesor 2009) and this includes health centres, personnel and medical equipment. Moreso, the state of existing facilities is often deplorable due to lack of maintenance. As Lee states: A health care system is an organizational framework for the distribution or servicing of the health care needs of a given community. It is a fairly complex system of inter-related elements that contribute to the health of people-in their homes, educational institutions, in work places, the public (social or recreational) and the psychological environments as well as the directly health and health-related sectors. (Lee 2009: 1). However, with the many social and infrastructural problems confronting the country is the pursuit of the politically attractive tertiary health care which, arguably, has remained the only attractive area of the health system, to the detriment of other levels of care. The neglect of Nigerias health care, with special reference to the primary health care system, its maldistribution, will result in an inverted health care pyramid. By implication, rather than produce health for the people, would always have the threat to collapse on itself. According to Asuzu (2003), Nigerias health care system has experienced past reforms, ranging from the traditional health care system that existed in the individual Nigerian communities and the ethnic groups before the era of colonization till date. Though Nigerias health care system is geared towards ensuring availability and accessibility of health care by Nigerians, yet the nations health care remains a major concern. On the other hand, health care reform is the process of improving the performance of existing systems of assuming efficient and equitable responses to future changes. It has also been defined as sustainable, purposeful change aimed at improving the health sector; health care reform is initiated by public or political action, is motivated by dissatisfaction caused by the failure to deliver outcomes and implemented on a sector wide level (Berman 1995). This presupposes that reforms might address the problems of poor quality of care, inefficiencies in the delivery of services, inequalities and limited access to health, level of accountability and insufficient responsiveness to client needs. Globally, it would seem Non-governmental Organizations have undertaken a wide range of functions, including but not limited to, humanitarian assistance, developmental aid, and promotion of human rights and lobbying to protect the environment. In other words, the role of non-governmental (NGOs) might have been seen to expand. Capturing the essence of health NGOs, Gilson states: †¦..humanitarian assistance is assistance given to meet the challenges of a humanitarian crisis, almost always includes provision of some type of healthcare, be it preventive action (such as providing shelter, clean water and sanitary facilities, immunization against epidemics) or management of emergencies (such as injuries from a disaster). Arguably, Nigeria is currently undergoing health sector reform aimed at achieving improved efficiencies in resource utilization, improved quality of health services as well as greater equity of access to health services. Jong-Chan (2002) asserts that given the strong influence they possess, NGOs remain the only sector that can empower the public to demand a stable national health program; NGOs should bring their experiences in health care reform to bear in order to strengthen their unique position in the health care system, independent of both governmental dominance and medical autonomy. In the light of the above assertion, it would seem Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have always been in the forefront of advancing novel ideas, and in encouraging and supporting governments to implement them. At a simple level, NGOs generally represent the voice of the people at all levels- local, national and international, and have taken on roles such as advocacy, education and training (Ogunbekun, 2004:3), and have been active in monitoring and improving what has, or has not, been implemented or achieved. For example, NGOs have been in the front burner in promoting, developing and improving a comprehensive and holistic approach to health care services. For change to happen, it would be necessary to collaborate with the relevant stakeholders in the health sector, whether they work in government, in administration, or as providers of the necessary services, to bring about needed change and improvement; also to ensure the people understand and support the changes which need to be made (Lorgen, 1998). Moreso, health professional associations might be effective in working with health NGOs in improving health care delivery. Often, they seek the advice of health professionals regarding issues around health care, essentially because they know that medical ethics require physicians to provide objective advice on health issues, in the best interests of their patients (Pfeiffer 2003). Health NGOs, together with health professionals, might also employ the skills and experiences that NGOs have garnered in putting information and messages across to the public in such a way that the public is able to understand and this will be necessary in improving health care. The role or value of NGOs in advancing health is hinged on three premises, emerging from the research endeavour of George Washington Universitys Centre for international Health: Individual health and communities socio-economic development are intrinsically linked; Well targeted health promotion activities can contribute not only to better health but can also enhance an individuals social well-being ; Local NGOs whose members are responsive to the communities they serve, are more likely to provide this linkage through fostering community empowerment. Many NGOs are involved in training programmes which is a role they seem to have undertaken at all levels. Therefore, they are well-positioned to assist the relevant government departments in bringing about changes and improvement in health care system (Gilson 2003). It would follow that NGOs should be invited by governments to assist as partners in creation of awareness, mobilization and development of training programmes on health care reforms. Also, health NGOs seem to have the capacity to empower communities to act on their own behalf, equipping people to improve the social and physical environments conducive for healthy lifestyles, and of health advocacy to enable policy makers to recognize and appreciate the necessity for improvements in health care conditions (Starfield 2011). Following the policy statement of World Health Organizations 1978 Alma Ata Conference, also known as the Alma Ata Declaration, which proposed that primary health care (PHC) be adopted for health planning and delivery, emphasizing on equity in health, disease prevention, and a comprehensive strategy to promote individual and community health (Rodriguez 2001), a health education strategy might suggest that within a socio-political context, health education aims to increase individuals consciousness of his or her health status, and the causes and determinants of that status, thereby increasing the possibility for positive action. As Asuzu (2003) points out †¦ NGOS act as catalyst by encouraging the various departments concerned with health to become actively involved in reform exercises†¦ This would be effective if different NGOs work in synergy. For instance, in addition to health NGOs, there is involvement of other relevant NGOs such as womens NGOs that concentrate on activities to improve the status of women and development NGOs whose centre of interest or activity is particularly on issues around development. Health NGOs, arguably, are dependent on their mandate or project charter which is in tandem with the overall programmes of a health care system within which they operate. According to Ohanyido (2012), the roles of health NGOs are summarized below: †¢ work to ensure that the health services are efficient, effective, and accessible. †¢ work within the health system to ensure that the number of well-trained staff is available through capacity- building or advocacy to government etc. †¢ help ensure that the health information system is able to generate useful data on health determinants and health system performance, and also avoid creating parallel systems †¢ work with all stakeholders to ensure that there is access to medicines, vaccines, and medical technologies in an equitable fashion. †¢ strengthen health financing systems by exploring funding sources and advocating to stakeholders to raise adequate funds for health, and ensuring that people can access affordable services. †¢ strengthen the system by ensuring that the Leadership must guarantee effective oversight, regulation, and accountability. Nonetheless, in order to work efficiently and effectively in improving health care system, health NGOs themselves must also be found to be accountable, transparent, and seem to be representing the interests of the people.

Descartes Say About Primary Qualities

Descartes Say About Primary Qualities Rene Descartes and John Locke both have similar theories about primary qualities. They both hold the same position on what is that primary qualities are. Both of them believe that primary qualities have the power to cause ideas in our minds. The main distinction between their theories lies in whether primary qualities are perceived by means of the senses or by the intellect. Rene Descartes believed that there are two types of qualities, primary and secondary qualities. To Rene Descartes, primary qualities are those that are clearly and distinctly perceived by us (33). These qualities are those that exist due to their geometric integrity and which are related to some extension of a body in space. By this reasoning, Descartes believes these primary qualities are composed of anything that is measurable and can have math applied to them such as motion, shape and size. Descartes believes that primary qualities are not misleading like secondary qualities are. This is because the essence of secondary qualities is not geometric and thus these qualities are perceived obscurely. Nevertheless both of these qualities produce ideas within us. The difference about the ideas produced by these qualities lie in whether it is clear and distinct or obscure and confused. The reason that these secondary qualities are often misleading and primary qualities are not is because we perceive both of these qualities differently. Descartes states that primary qualities, unlike secondary qualities, are perceived clearly and distinctly. This he beliefs, is due to the fact that our method that we go by perceiving these qualities is different. Primary qualities are perceived through our intellect as opposed to secondary qualities which are perceived through our senses (14). Descartes believes that our understanding comes through our intellect and not our senses, therefore the ideas that we are able to grasp from primary qualities are not by means of our senses but rather by means of our intellect since they are clear and distinct unlike those ideas that come from our senses which are obscure and confused. Both primary and secondary qualities are perceived by the mind immediately and therefore result in the ideas we have (32). Unlike secondary qualities, primary qualities are features of the physical objects that are actually there but we come to understand the ideas produced by primary qualities solely by means o f our intellect. Descartes uses the example of a thousand-sided figure to show how primary qualities produce these clear and distinct ideas compared to the often misleading ideas of secondary qualities (sixth meditation). He states that the imagination by means of the senses is able to generate an obscured and confused idea about a thousand sided figure in comparison to the intellect which is able to perceive it clearly no matter how many sides the figure has. These ideas, which are a product of primary qualities are related to extension and are therefore perceived by our intellect using our understanding (sixth meditation). Descartes theory on primary qualities has some similarity to John Lockeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s but differs on how it is that these ideas come to be about within us. John Lockeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s point of view regarding primary and secondary qualities is similar to some extent to Descartesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ theory of primary and secondary qualities. To Locke, primary qualities are spatiotemporal and quantitative. Therefore like Descartes, primary qualities are composed of size and shape, something which is measurable (135). Like Descartes, Locke believes that these qualities have the effect of producing the ideas that we have within us. An idea to Locke is the thought or understanding which is produced by the object. He calls the power that an object has to produce such ideas within us, qualities. Locke states that ideas are existent in our minds. To Locke these qualities are properties belonging to the objects and are the cause of the ideas that we house in our minds (134). The difference between primary qualities and secondary qualities to Locke is the kinds of ideas that these are able to produce in our minds. Locke believes that the ideas pro duced by primary qualities are a resemblance of these qualities. Locke believes that these qualities are actually existent in the objects themselves. On the other hand, those of secondary qualities hold no resemblance to them (136). Unlike Descartes, John Locke has a different theory by which we acquire these ideas. Unlike Descartes, John Locke believes that we acquire our ideas through the perception of the senses. According to Locke, reasoning is an exception to his perspective on innate ideas. He believes that all of our ideas are acquired through our experiences and by means of our senses. Locke states how our mind is similar to that of a blank state, and it is only by experiences that we are able to perceive by means of our senses that we acquire the ideas we possess. Qualities are the powers that objects have and it is within these powers that ideas are produced by them within us. Primary qualities are inseparable from the object, and thus the power of primary qualities produces ideas that resemble the object. This is shown by the example he gives of when something is divided even into its smallest of parts, even when these are too small for us to perceive, the primary qualities are still existent in the object (138). Although Descartes and Locke description of what primary qualities are is similar, their belief in how it is that we come to reason or reflect on these qualities is different. Descartes believes that we canà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t rely entirely on our senses, since they often deceive us. He believes that those ideas obtained from primary qualities are distinct and clear. Therefore he believes that the ideas produced by primary qualities are grasped by means of the intellect. Locke unlike Descartes believes that the ideas we acquire through our life is by experience and it is by the senses that we come to have such experiences. Therefore to Locke, the ideas produced by the power of primary qualities are grasped by means of the senses. To Locke and Descartes, primary qualities are the causal effect which produces the clear ideas that we have, the main difference between their theories is whether we obtain these through our senses and by reflecting or solely by the intellect.

The Adventures of Nigel and Corky :: essays research papers

The Adventures of Nigel and Corky †¦ They were on a rickety old plane that looked like I could’ve been flown sometime during the fifties, everyone was snickering and making comments about it when all of a sudden the engines started to sputter and die. The engines went out and the pilot was forced into attempting a crash landing, he dint do too good and the only survivors were Nigel Frumpton, a world famous explorer and professional treasure hunter and Corky, the pilots assistant, see Corky was a little slower than normal and the only reason he worked for the pilot is because the pilot felt sorry for him.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As they gathered all the supplies that were salvageable Nigel was trying to come up with some sort a plan. After they were ready Nigel explained to Corky that they were going to continue with the expedition while looking for some sort of civilization where they could get a hold of someone to come help them. It didn’t really look too likely for a while because they were stranded deep in the middle of the thick jungles of South America.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  They started walking north figuring they would run into something after a while but they found something all too soon. Before Nigel knew he could hear Corky yelling for help about thirty feet away from him. Corky had wandered off a little bit and walked right into a big puddle of quicksand and was slowly sinking helplessly. Nigel had the think quick so he looked for something to throw Corky, he noticed long sturdy looking vines hanging off of a tree nearby and ran over to cut a vine down to toss to Corky as a makeshift life saver. In his rush to help he didn’t pay much attention to what vine he was grabbing, when he reached up and grabbed onto the closest vine to him he heard a very intimidating hiss from very close. As he looked down to see what was hissing he noticed the â€Å"vine† he grabbed wasn’t a vine at all it was a vine snake! Vine snakes are notorious for blending in with the vines of a long tree and striking on unsuspecting victims , releasing their extremely venomous poison into the victim killing them almost instantly. Nigel being the expert he was didn’t over react to the situation and calmly let go of the snake and at the same time quickly cut off a nearby vine from the tree and ran over to Corky, by this time he had sunk to his waistline and was getting pretty impatient with Nigel.

Sun Microsystems, Inc. Essay -- GCSE Business Marketing Coursework

Sun Microsystems, Inc. Sun Microsystems, Inc. is a worldwide provider of products, services and support solutions for building and maintaining network-computing environments. The Company sells scalable computer systems, high-speed microprocessors and high performance software for operating network computing equipment and storage products. The Company also provides support, education and professional services. The Company's products are used for many demanding commercial and technical applications in various industries including telecommunications, manufacturing, financial services, education, retail, government, energy and healthcare. Sun Microsystems' lines of business include Computer Systems and Storage, Enterprise Services, Software Systems and Network Service Provider. Computer Systems and Storage designs, develops and brings to market desktop systems, servers, storage and network switches, incorporating the UltraSPARC microprocessors and the Solaris Operating Environment. This segment also designs and develops UltraSPARC and MAJC microprocessors, computer board platforms, processor modules, chip sets and logic products for Sun systems products and OEM customers. The Company's workstation products include the Ultra5, Ultra 10, Ultra 60 and Ultra 80 models. The Ultra 5 workstation is used for business applications and for software development. The Ultra 10 workstation offers value and performance for 3-D graphics applications and is designed for applications such as drafting and design, animation and rendering, modeling and analysis. The Ultra 60 workstation, in both single and dual processor configurations, is suited for modeling and virtual prototyping, medical imaging, animation and geosciences. Finally, the Ultra 80 workstation has the highest memory bandwidth in the workstation product line with uniprocessor, dual-processor, and quad-processor configuration, and is well-suited for simulation, design and analysis, modeling and virtual prototyping, animation, imaging and visualization, medical imaging, research and development and financial modeling. Enterprise Services provides global services and support for heterogeneous network computing environments, including system/network management, systems integration, and support, education, and professional services. The Company's Sun Enterprise servers consist of workgroup servers, mid-range servers ... ... America Online, Inc. (AOL), the Sun-Netscape Alliance, the Company designs, develops, markets, and sells enterprise and E-commerce software for consumers and businesses under the iPlanet brand. These software products and technologies, commonly referred to as middleware, complement the Company's enterprise servers, storage and workstation products. Combined, these products provide customers with comprehensive solutions to their enterprise and Internet computing needs. In December 2000, the Company compelted the acquisition of Cobalt Networks, Inc., a provider of server appliances for Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Application Service Providers (ASPs), and small- to medium-sized businesses. The Company's competitors include Hewlett-Packard Company (HP), International Business Machines Corporation, Compaq Computer Corporation (Compaq) and EMC Corporation (EMC). The Company also competes with systems manufacturers and resellers of systems based on microprocessors from Intel Corporation (Intel) and Windows NT operating system software from Microsoft Corporation (Microsoft). These competitors include Dell Computer Corporation, HP and Compaq, in addition to Intel and Microsoft.

Improving Speaking Skills Essay

This article examines the different circumstances under which infant and adult learners develop speaking skills. We will see the facilities or difficulties in both cases in order to focus on the real possibilities of adults to develop a high level of speaking proficiency. We will see what the role of the teacher is in order to improve the learners’ skills, the features of oral communication that need to be improved and which strategies can be used to overcome the difficulties. Key words: speaking skills, adult learning, oral communication, teaching strategies. Resumen Este articulo analiza las diferentes circunstancias en las que ninos y adultos desarrollan las destrezas orales. Veremos las facilidades y dificultades en ambos casos para asi centrarnos en las posibilidades reales que tienen los adultos de alcanzar un alto nivel de competencia oral. Veremos tambien cual es el papel del profesor en este contexto, para mejorar las capacidades de los alumnos, y ver cuales son los elementos de la comunicacion oral que hay que mejorar y que estrategias se pueden aplicar para superar las dificultades. Palabras clave: destrezas orales, aprendizaje de adultos, comunicacion verbal, estrategias de ensenanza. If we think of the period in our lives when we learned to speak our first language, and the moment in which we started to make huge efforts to speak our second/foreign language we find significant differences. In the former case, we may have fond memories of what our parents told us; and in the latter, it suddenly becomes a frustrating experience that seems to bring imperfect results. For adults, learning to speak a new language is in many cases far from satisfactory simply because they feel they need to cope with many different aspects at one time, and that seems to be impossible in real conversations. I wonder if it is possible to acquire a high level of speaking proficiency in adults; I wonder if it is possible to make adult learners improve their speaking skills, and the most important thing for teachers: how? The first question we have to consider in order to reach a conclusion is whether learning at infancy is different from learning at adulthood; which are the circumstances that differentiate them and if those onditions inevitably lead to obvious and hopeless results. Only bearing in mind what we can expect of a particular type of learner, we can focus on how to improve their speaking skills. It is obvious that there are marked differences between children learners and adult learners and that they cannot acquire the second language under the same circumstances. Consequently, the results will be also different. Concerning children and the early age at which they learn to speak, we can say that they enjoy certain advantages that make them outstanding learners. They have surprising linguistic abilities due to optimal moment in which they find themselves for language learning, this is to say, at this moment their brain is characterized by a certain plasticity that allows some abilities to develop with ease during a period of time, after which it becomes really difficult for these abilities to be developed (Fleta, 2006: 53), or using 86 Improving Speaking Skills Betsabe Navarro Romero Encuentro, 18, pp. 86-90 Klein’s words ‘between the age of two and puberty the human brain shows the plasticity which allows a child to acquire his first language’ (Klein, 1986: 9). Therefore, children are special learners for their natural and innate abilities to acquire a language. According to Fleta, one of these special abilities is ‘filtering sophisticated information about language properties from birth’ (Fleta, 2006: 49), in other words, children have an enormous ability to integrate difficult information in an easy and unconscious way from the beginning of their development. They are able to acquire and integrate complex data without being aware of it, whereas other learners, at other ages, would find it arduous to achieve. Moreover, apart from this special gift children have for assimilating difficult information, we can mention some of their other qualities, such as their capacity for perceiving and imitating sounds. Some studies have showed that ‘young infants are especially sensitive to acoustic changes at the phonetic boundaries between categories’ (Kuhl, 2004: 832). Also, children are especially good at predicting syllable chunks: ‘infants are sensitive to the sequential probabilities between adjacent syllables’ (Kuhl, 2004: 834) which makes children with a surprising instinct as far as language knowledge is concerned . Finally, students also acquire the ability of ordering words within a sentence (grammar rules) unconsciously: ‘there is some evidence that young children can detect non-adjacencies such as those required to learn grammar’ (Kuhl, 2004: 836). All in all, we can say that children learn the language without being aware of it when they ‘are exposed to the right kind of auditory information’ (Kuhl, 2004: 836), this is, children learn the language through communication and interaction and thanks to that they acquire all the abilities they can potentially develop. On the other hand, concerning adults we observe how difficult is that they can acquire certain native sounds; their pronunciation will be, on many occasions, foreign-like which is due to their difficulty in distinguishing and producing some sounds after the so called ‘critical period’. In that respect, some authors claim that adult learners cannot acquire a phonological development (Lightbown and Spada, 2006: 69). However, other researchers defend the opposite. Wolfgang Klein, in his book Second Language Acquisition (1986) stated that ‘the apparent facility with which children learn a second language is often attributed to biological factors, but an alternative explanation might be that, unlike adults, children have no need to fear the loss of their social identity’ (Klein, 1986: 6). Authors such as Klein argue that phonological facilities of children are not bound to biological reasons, but to psychological ones. In that respect, adults feel attached to their native identities, to their original social identities, which is what prevent them from achieving perfection in L2 pronunciation. Klein confirmed that ‘suitably motivated adults are capable of mastering to perfection the pronunciation of the most exotic languages’ (Klein, 1986: 10). Therefore, we conclude that although the cases of adults speaking a second language without any accent are not very common, this does not mean that it is impossible to acquire a native-like pronunciation. Also, besides phonological issues, we can talk about the capacity of adults to acquire any other kind of linguistic faculties, more related to structural relations (UG). In that sense, there are authors that doubt the validity of Lenneberg’s Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH) by assuring that even adults have access to the well known Universal Grammar. While Lenneberg claimed that only before puberty learners had UG available, authors such as S. W. Felix defended by evidence that adult L2 learners also benefit from the UG principles: ‘If child and adult learners use different modules for the purpose of language acquisition, then we would expect adult learners to be unable to attain grammatical knowledge that arises only through the mediation of UG. If, in contrast, adults do attain this type of knowledge, then, we have reason to believe that UG continues to be active even after puberty’ (Felix, 1988: 279). Therefore, we can conclude that adults are also able to master a proficient use of the second/foreign language, not only in grammatical issues but also in phonological ones, which makes us believe that we can improve adult learners’ speaking skills. 87 Improving Speaking Skills Betsabe Navarro Romero Encuentro, 18, pp. 86-90 Once we know that adults can be biologically and psychologically prepared to have a native-like proficiency in the second language, we should move on to the second language teaching context in order to achieve our aim of improving adult learners’ skills. In that respect, we should reflect on the teachers’ role in this situation and what they can do to be successful with their learners. Teachers therefore need to analyse the students’ needs, face their problems and find fruitful solutions that help them develop their speaking abilities. S. Pit Corder, in his chapter called ‘Applied Linguistics and Language Teaching’, in Introducing Applied Linguistics (1973) defended the important role of linguists who identify the problems of the learners and find solutions for them. Corder added that specialists’ role is to formulate the appropriate questions in order to define problems that need to be faced. Using his words, ‘the formulation of the questions, the identification of the problems and the specification of their nature presupposes linguistic theory. The nature of the problem is defined by the theory which is applied to it. The solution to a problem is only as good as the theory which has been used to solve it’ (Corder, 1973: 138). In this direction he said that in language teaching there are two appropriate questions teachers should make: what to teach and how to teach, ‘these are the problems of content and method, or, using an industrial analogy, the problem of product and process design respectively’ (Corder, 1973: 139). Therefore, if teachers wish to know how to improve speaking skills, what they need to ask themselves first is what they are going to teach, and how. On the one hand, let us consider the first question: what. If we need to improve speaking skills we need to know which skills or which features learners need to develop. In that respect, there are several authors that stated different goals or different dimensions that speakers needed to achieve. Goodwin, for instance, established several goals for a proper pronunciation. She called them ‘functional intelligibility, functional communicability, increased self-confidence, and speech-monitoring abilities’ (Goodwin, 2001: 118). She argued that learners should be able to speak an intelligible foreign language, that is to say, listeners need to understand the learner’s message without huge efforts; learners also need to be successful in a ‘specific communicative situation’ (Goodwin, 2001: 118); they need to ‘gain confidence in their ability to speak and be understood’ (Goodwin, 2001: 118); and finally, they need to monitor and control their own production by paying attention to their own speech. Goodwin specified those abilities that learners need to acquire through certain linguistic features that can be practiced: Intonation, rhythm, reduced speech, linking words, consonants and vowel sounds, word stress, etc. These are concrete speaking aspects in which learners should be trained in order to improve their speaking skills. Similarly, other authors such as Anne Lazaraton suggest that oral communication is based on four dimensions or competences: grammatical competence (phonology, vocabulary, word and sentence formation†¦); sociolinguistic competence (rules for interaction, social meanings); discourse competence (cohesion and how sentences are liked together); and finally, strategic competence (compensatory strategies to use in difficult situations), (Lazaraton, 2001: 104). According to Lazaraton learners should develop all these abilities to acquire a high oral level of the foreign language, but she adds that in recent years, with the influence of the communicative approach, more importance is given to fluency, trying to achieve a balance with the traditional accuracy. Moreover, apart from what pedagogically and theoretically should be taught, many researchers are presently analysing real problems that learners face: ‘fluent speech contains reduced forms, such as contractions, vowel reduction, and elision, where learners do not get sufficient practice’ (Lazaraton, 2001: 103); use of slang and idioms in speech since students tend to sound ‘bookish’ (Lazaraton, 2001: 103), stress, rhythm, intonation, lack of active vocabulary, lack of interaction pattern rules†¦ 88 Improving Speaking Skills Betsabe Navarro Romero Encuentro, 18, pp. 86-90 Once speaking goals have been determined, next step consists of questioning how they are going to be achieved. For designing a concrete methodology teachers need to adopt a theoretical perspective, they need to reflect on the linguistic approach that will be used in their teaching. Many authors, following the up-todate trend of the Communicative approach, defend the interactive role of speaking and promote its teaching from a communicative perspective stressing meaning and context. In Goodwin’s words: ‘In â€Å"Teaching Pronunciation† the goal of instruction is threefold: to enable our learners to understand and be understood, to build their confidence in entering communicative situations, and to enable them to monitor their speech’ (Goodwin, 2001: 131), also ‘pronunciation is never an end in itself but a means of negotiating meaning in discourse, embedded in specific sociocultural and interpersonal contexts’ (Goodwin,2001: 117). If we think of how this theoretical background will be applied in real teaching, we find that in traditional classes they focused speaking practice on the production of single and isolated sounds, whereas within the communicative approach, ‘the focus shifted to fluency rather than accuracy, encouraging an almost exclusive emphasis on suprasegmentals’ (Goodwin, 2001: 117). There is the key word, when communication is the main goal linguistic practice turns into longer structures, at the suprasegmental level; therefore, the training on individual sounds makes way for macro structures that affect interaction directly. The second part of how to teach, moves away from theory to approach real problems and their solutions. Several authors have stated that when learners face problems in speaking they need practical and concrete solutions to know how to behave and respond in order to overcome those difficulties. Mariani, in his article ‘Developing Strategic Competence: Towards Autonomy in Oral Interaction’, recalls L1 strategies that native speakers use when they encounter communication problems, and suggests teaching those strategies to L2 learners: ‘just think of how often, in L1 communication, we cannot find the words to say something and have to adjust our message, or to ask our interlocutor to help us, or to use synonyms or general words to make ourselves understood’ (Mariani, 1994: 1). Mariani classifies those strategies according to the speakers’ behaviour: learners can either avoid certain messages because they don’t feel confident with their speaking skills (‘reduction strategies’), or make the most out of their knowledge and modify their message bearing in mind their weaknesses and strengths (‘achievement strategies’: borrowing, foreignizing, translating†¦(Mariani, 1994: 3). The author praises the latter by saying that achievement strategies are a very interesting way of developing learners’ language domain. Speakers who opt for this option make huge efforts to transmit a message by playing with the language to the extreme, which only brings beneficial consequences. In the second or foreign language classroom context, teachers should train learners to use and practice the different strategies that can help them face difficult situations. The only way of training students in this direction is by means of a bank of activities in which they become aware of the different possibilities that they can put into practice. Authors such as Goodwin or Lazaraton offer a varied list of exercises to be used in class: poems, rhymes, dialogues, monologues, role plays, debates, interviews, simulations, drama scenes, discussions, conversations†¦ Therefore, coming back to the initial question proposed above, I think it is absolutely feasible to teach adults strategies to improve their speaking skills. Of course, that objective depends on many different factors that will affect the degree of acquisition, let us think of age, motivation, or even the context in which the language is learned: ESL versus EFL. In that respect, learners in a second language context will have numberless occasions to practice the language and that will undoubtedly influence their skills development. With reference to the foreign language context, authors such as Lazaraton admitted the difficulties learners 89 Improving Speaking Skills Betsabe Navarro Romero Encuentro, 18, pp. 86-90 ormally face: ‘homogeneous EFL classes, where all students speak the same first language and English is not used outside the classroom, present certain additional challenges for the teacher’ (Lazaraton, 2001: 110). As she said, teachers have considerable limitations in EFL classes such as lack of opportunities to use the language, lack of motivation in the learners, the number of students in the class, curriculum re strictions†¦(Lazaraton, 2001: 110), but there are solutions and strategies, as the ones previously mentioned, that should be put into practice. Mariani, in his article mentioned above, also makes a reflection on whether communication strategies should be teachable or not. He states the pros and cons by saying that training students on specific strategies can provide them with certain limitations and consequently hamper fluent communication: ‘we can hardly force them into a straightjacket of pre-selected strategies. Most of us would agree that we should encourage spontaneity, creativity and originality in language use’ (Mariani, 1994: 7). However, on the other hand, he argues that if learners become aware of the different strategies they can flexibly use, they will finally integrate them either consciously or unconsciously, which will stretch their possibilities for communication. To sum up, as teachers can, and should, improve learners’ speaking skills and communication strategies, the only thing they need to do is to plan their teaching around two main questions: what they want to teach, which specific speaking features they want to develop in their learners; and how they want to do it.

Blue Ocean Strategy Paper Essay

There has been a lot of discussion and consideration when it comes to the red or blue ocean approach to marketing strategies for businesses both already established and newly founded. Red oceans refer to the known market space – all the industries in existence today. In red oceans, industry boundaries are clearly delineated and accepted, and the competitive rules of the game are known. Companies try to outperform their rivals to grab a greater share of existing demand, usually through marginal changes in offering level and price. As the market space gets crowded, prospects for profits and growth are reduced products become commodities, and cut-throat competition turns the red ocean bloody. On the other hand, the blue ocean approach uses a strategy to create new demand. Therefore, under the reconstructionist view, attention shifts from supply to demand, from a focus on competition to a focus on value innovation―that is, the creation of innovative value that will unlock new demand. With this new focus in mind, it is possible to systematically look across established boundaries of competition and reconstruct existing elements in different markets to create all new market space. (Kim, 2005) Blue Ocean Strategy & Importance Competing in overcrowded industries is no way to sustain high performance. The real opportunity is to create blue oceans of uncontested market space, making the competition irrelevant. A blue ocean strategic move can create brand equity that lasts for decades. A blue ocean is created in the region where a company’s actions favorably affect both its cost structure and its value proposition to buyers. Cost savings are made from eliminating and reducing the factors an industry competes on. Buyer value is lifted by raising and creating elements the industry has never offered. Over time, costs are reduced further as scale economies kick in, due to the high sales volumes that superior value, without the competition generates. Blue Ocean Move The blue ocean strategy is one of the latest business ideas in the world. Even though it was created recently, it immediately gained recognition among experts, and presidents and directors of many companies. Blue ocean strategy is a strategy that differs significantly from most business strategies. Blue ocean, denotes all the industries not in existence today—the unknown market space, where there is no current competition. In blue oceans, demand is created rather than fought over. There is opportunity for growth that is both profitable and rapid. Blue ocean is an analogy to describe the wider, deeper potential of market space that is not yet explored. EBay would be a good example of blue ocean strategy. EBay was the first of its kind to initiate a service of online auctions reaching an enormous target market that had never been targeted before in this manner by offering an online auctioning service to customers from the convenience of their homes. Alternative Red Ocean Move Red oceans are all the industries in existence today—the known market space. In the red oceans, industry boundaries are defined and accepted, and the competitive rules of the game are known. Here companies try to outperform their rivals to grab a greater share of product or service demand. Red ocean strategy is designed to gain the greatest possible number of customers and to sell as many of their products. Companies that select this strategy do not create a new service without competition, they advertise their products in every way possible. The fight between competing companies is constant. Some of these companies are trying to create exclusive product lines to increase the range of their brand but never consider stepping outside of their comfort zone and bringing a new strategy to the table by creating a service that has not yet been marketed in order to increase profit without the worries of competition. An example of a company that uses the red ocean strategy would be Nik e. Nike jumped into the market ready to compete amongst already existing competitors not on a mission to create a service that was without competition. Once Nike was in the market and above its competition, it could now venture into other ocean strategies to continue to be innovative, creative, and provide a service to their current market as well as look for services to uncharted markets. Red Ocean  Pros: If you are a successful company like Nike, you are already at the top of the chain and your services are still continuously sought after; so providing a new service that doesn’t currently exists doesn’t necessary mean profit and sustainability. Nike wasn’t the first athletic shoe provider. There was competition that existed before Nike became known. Nike was able to enter a market using the red ocean strategy approach and add creativity and innovation to an athletic industry that was already established and climb to the top without the blue ocean approach. Red Ocean Cons: As the market space gets crowded, prospects for profits and growth are reduced. Products become commodities or niche, and cutthroat competition turns the red ocean bloody. Hence, the term red oceans. The red ocean, players want to produce products and provide services cheaper and better than the competition but that doesn’t always mean the product they offer are in-fact better than products of their competitors. Conclusion A company must master its traditional markets using conventional strategic planning tools. It will always be a competitive advantage to successfully incorporate the red ocean approach and beating the competition. Red oceans will always matter and will always be a fact of business life. Businesses that tend to only focus on the red ocean approach must accept the key constraining factors – limited terrain and the need to beat an enemy in order to succeed – and to deny the distinctive strength of the business world: the capacity to create a new service and gain a new market space that is uncontested. In order to sustain high performance, companies must create their own blue oceans, and make the competition irrelevant! Even though the blue ocean strategy is uncharted territory, and no measurements or feedback exists, it can be considered a risky approach that’s why many businesses today, get in business using one approach and sustain business or rebrand their business with the implementation of both strategic approaches. (Kim, 2005) References Blue Ocean Strategy. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.blueoceanstrategy.comKim, W. C. (2005). BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY. Retrieved from https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/secure/aapd/cwe/citation_generator/web_01_01.asp

Fool Chapter 5

FIVE PITY THE FOOL Kent banished, Cordelia disinherited, the king having given away his property and power, but most important, my home, the White Tower; the two older sisters insulted by Kent, the dukes ready to cut my throat, well – getting a laugh might be a challenge. Royal succession, it seemed, would not be a prudent subject to broach, and I was lost for a transition to slapstick or pantomime after Lear's high drama, so Drool was but a millstone on comedy's neck. I juggled apples and sang a little song about monkeys while I pondered the problem. The king was, of late, leaning decidedly pagan, while the elder sisters favored the Church. Gloucester and Edgar were devout to the Roman pantheon, and Cordelia, well, she thought the whole lot was shit and England should have her own church with women in the clergy. Quaint. So the high-minded comedy of religious satire it would be†¦ I tossed my apples around the table and said, â€Å"Two popes are shagging a camel behind a mosque, when this Saracen comes up – â€Å" â€Å"There is only one, true pope!† shouted Cornwall, great tower of malignant smegma that he is. â€Å"It's a jest, you wanker,† said I. â€Å"Suspend fucking disbelief for a bit, would you?† He was right, in a way (although not for the purpose of the camel bit). For the last year there had only been one pope, in the holy city of Amsterdam. But for the prior fifty years there had been two popes, the Retail Pope and the Discount Pope. After the Thirteenth Holy Crusade, when it was decided that to avoid future strife, the birthplace of Jesus would be moved to a different city every four years, holy shrines lost their geographical importance. There arose a great price war in the Church, with shrines offering pilgrims dispensation at varying competitive rates. Now there didn't need to be a miracle declared on the spot; anywhere could basically be declared a holy site, and often was. Lourdes would still sell dispensation coupons with the healing waters – but also some bloke in Puddinghoe could plant some pansies and hawk, â€Å"Jesus had a wee right on this very spot when he was a lad – two pennies and a spliff of Cardiff chronic ‘ill get you out o' purgat ory for an eon, mate.† Soon a whole guild of low-priced shrine keepers around Europe named their own Pope – Boldface the Relatively Shameless, Discount Pope of Prague. The price war was on. If the Dutch pope would give you a hundred years out of purgatory for a shilling and a ferryman's ticket, the Discount Pope would let you out for two hundred years and send you home with the femur of a minor saint and a splinter of the True Cross. The Retail Pope would offer cheesy bacon toppings on the Host with communion and the Discount Pope would counter with topless-nun night for midnight mass. It came to a head, though, when St. Matthew appeared in a vision to the Retail Pope, telling him that the faithful were more interested in the quality of their religious experience, not just the quantity. Thus inspired, the Retail Pope moved Christmas to June when the weather wasn't so shit for shopping, and the Discount Pope, not realizing the game had changed, responded by forgiving hell altogether for anyone who gave a priest a hand job. Without hell, there was no fear, and without fear, there was no further need for the Church to supply redemption, and more important, no means for the Church to modify behavior. The Discount faithful defected in droves, either to the Retail branch of the Church, or to a dozen different pagan sects. Why not get pissed and dance naked around a pole all Sabbath if the worst of it was a rash on the naughty bits and the dropping of the odd bastard now and then? Pope Boldface was burned in a wicker man the next Beltane and cats shat in his ashes. So, yes, a two-pope joke was untimely, but fuck all, it was dire times, and I sallied forth, for a bit: â€Å"So the second pope says, ‘Your sister? I thought she was kosher?'† And no one laughed. Cordelia rolled her eyes and made a raspberry sound. The pathetic one-trumpet fanfare dribbled, the great doors were thrown open, and France and Burgundy ponced[20] into the hall followed by the bastard Edmund. â€Å"Silence, fool,† commanded Lear, with great superfluity. â€Å"Hail, Burgundy, hail, France.† â€Å"Hail, Edmund the bloody bastard!† said I. Lear ignored me and motioned for France and Burgundy to come before him. They were both fit, taller than me but not tall, a few years south of thirty. Burgundy had dark hair and the sharp features of a Roman. France, sandy hair and softer features. Each wore sword and dagger that I doubted had been ever drawn but for ceremony. Fucking frogs. â€Å"Lord Burgundy,† said Lear, â€Å"you have rivaled for the hand of our youngest daughter. What dowry do you require for her?† â€Å"No less than your highness has offered,† said the dark poofter. â€Å"Alas, that is no more, good Burgundy. What we offered, was offered when she was dear to us. Now she has roused our anger and betrayed our love and her dowry is nothing. If you want her as she is there, take her, but there will be no dowry.† Burgundy was stunned. He backed away, nearly stepping on France's feet. â€Å"I'm sorry, then, sir, but I must tend to property and power in my choice of duchess.† â€Å"She shall have neither,† said Lear. â€Å"So be it,† said Burgundy. He nodded, bowed, and stepped back. â€Å"I am sorry, Cordelia.† â€Å"No worry, sir,† said the princess. â€Å"If Burgundy's heart is wed only to property and power, then it could never be to me truly. Peace be with you.† I breathed half a sigh of relief. We might be driven from our home, but if Cordelia was driven out with us – â€Å"I'll take her!† said Edgar. â€Å"You will not, you blubbering, beetle-browed, dog-buggering dolt!† I may have accidentally exclaimed. â€Å"You will not,† said Gloucester, pushing his son back into his seat. â€Å"Well, I will have her,† said the Prince of France. â€Å"For she is a dowry in herself.† â€Å"Oh for fuck's sake!† â€Å"Pocket, that's enough,† said the king. â€Å"Guard, take him outside and hold him until our will is done.† Two yeomen stepped up behind me and seized me under the armpits. I heard Drool moan and looked over to see him cowering behind a column. This had never happened before – nothing like it. I was the all-licensed fool! I of all people could speak truth to power – I am chief cheeky monkey to the King of Bloody Britain! â€Å"You don't know what you're getting into, France. Have you seen her feet? Or perhaps that is your game, put her to work in the vineyards crushing wine grapes. Majesty, the poofter means to force servitude on her, mark my words.† But no one heard the last of it, the yeomen had dragged me from the room and held me in the hall outside. I sought to brain one with Jones but he caught the puppet stick and tucked him in his belt at the small of his back. â€Å"Sorry, Pocket,† said Curan, the captain of the guard, a grizzled bear in chain mail who held me by my right arm. â€Å"‘Twas a direct order, and you were fast cutting your throat with your own tongue.† â€Å"Not me,† said I. â€Å"He wouldn't hurt me.† â€Å"I'd have said he'd not banish his best friend or disown his favorite daughter before this night. Hanging a fool's an easy leap, lad.† â€Å"Aye,† said I. â€Å"You're right. Let me go, then.† â€Å"Not until the king's business is done,† said the old yeoman. The doors came open, fanfare trickled anemic through the portal, and out came the Prince of France, on his arm, Cordelia, radiant and wearing a grim smile. I could see her jaw clenched, but she relaxed when she saw me and some of the fire of anger left her eyes. â€Å"So, you're off with the frog Prince?† said I. France laughed at that, bloody buggering French fuck that he is. Is there anything so irritating as a noble who actually behaves nobly? â€Å"Yes, I am leaving, Pocket, but there is one thing you must always remember and never forget – â€Å" â€Å"Both at once?† â€Å"Shut up!† â€Å"Aye, milady.† â€Å"You must always remember, and you must never forget, that while you are the Black Fool, the dark fool, the Royal Fool, the all-licensed fool, and the King's Fool, you were not brought here to be those things. You were brought here to please me. Me! So when you put your titles aside, a fool still shall there reside, and now and forever, you are my fool.† â€Å"Oh my, you are going to do well in France – they hold unpleasantness to be a virtue.† â€Å"Mine!† â€Å"Now and forever, milady.† â€Å"You may kiss my hand, fool.† The yeoman released me and I bent to take her hand. She pulled it away, and turned, her gown fanning out around her as she walked away. â€Å"Sorry, having you on.† I smiled into the floor. â€Å"You bitch.† â€Å"I'll miss you, Pocket,† she said over her shoulder, and she hurried down the corridor. â€Å"Take me with you. Take us both with you. France, you could use a brilliant fool and a great lumbering bag of flatulence like Drool, couldn't you?† The prince shook his head, entirely too much pity in his eyes for my tastes. â€Å"You are Lear's fool, with Lear you shall stay.† â€Å"That's not what your wife just said.† â€Å"She will learn,† said the prince. He turned on his heel and followed Cordelia down the corridor. I started after them but the captain yanked me back by the arm. â€Å"Let her go, lad.† Next out of the hall came the sisters and their husbands. Before I could say anything the captain had clamped his hand over my mouth and was lifting me off my feet as I kicked. Cornwall made as to draw his dagger, but Regan pulled him away. â€Å"You've just won a kingdom, my duke, killing vermin is a servant's task. Leave the bitter fool stew in his own bile.† She wanted me. It was clear. Goneril would not look me in the eye, but hurried past, and her husband, Albany, just shook his head as he walked by. A hundred brilliant witticisms died suffocating on the captain's heavy glove. Thus muted, I pumped my codpiece at the duke and tried to force a fart, but my bum trumpet could find no note. As if the gods had sent down a dim and gaseous avatar to help me, Drool came next through the door, walking rather more straight than was his habit. Then I saw that someone had looped a rope around his neck, the noose fixed to a spear whose point was almost piercing Drool's throat. Edmund stepped into the corridor holding the other end of the spear, two men at arms flanking him. â€Å"The captain havin' a laugh with you, then, Pocket?† said Drool, innocent of his peril. The captain dropped me to my feet then, but held my shoulder to keep me from going at Edmund, whose father and brother passed behind him. â€Å"You were right, Pocket,† said Edmund, poking Drool a bit with the spear for emphasis. â€Å"Killing you would be enough to cement my unfavorable position forever, but a hostage – there's a mute I can use. I so enjoyed your performance in there that I prevailed upon the king to provide me with a fool of my own, and look at his gift. He'll be coming to Gloucester with us to assure that you don't forget your promise.† â€Å"You don't need the spear, bastard. He'll go if I ask him.† â€Å"Are we going on holiday, Pocket?† asked Drool, blood beginning to trickle down his neck then. I approached the giant. â€Å"No, lad,† said I. â€Å"You're going to go with the bastard here. Do as he says.† I turned to the captain. â€Å"Give me your knife.† The captain eyed Edmund and the men at arms beside him, who had hands on hilts. â€Å"I don't know, Pocket – â€Å" â€Å"Give me your bloody knife!† I whirled, pulled the knife from the captain's belt, and before the men at arms could draw I'd cut the rope around Drool's neck and pushed Edmund's spear aside. â€Å"You don't need the spear, bastard.† I handed the captain his knife and motioned for Drool to bend down so we were eye-to-eye. â€Å"I want you to go with Edmund and don't give him any trouble, you understand?† â€Å"Aye. You ain't comin'?† â€Å"I'll be along, I'll be along. I've business at the White Tower first.† â€Å"Shagging to be done?† Drool nodded so enthusiastically you could nearly hear his tiny brain rattling around his gourd. â€Å"I'll be helping, right?† â€Å"No, lad, but you'll have your own castle. You'll be the proper fool, won't you? There'll be all kinds of hiding and listening, Drool, do you understand what I'm saying, lad?† I winked, hoping against hope that the git would get my meaning. â€Å"Will there be heinous fuckery, Pocket?† â€Å"Aye, I think you can count on it.† â€Å"Smashing!† Drool clapped his hands and danced a little jig then, chanting, â€Å"Heinous fuckery most foul, heinous fuckery most foul – â€Å" I looked to Edmund. â€Å"You've my word, bastard. But you've also my word that if any harm comes to the Natural, I'll see to it that ghosts ride you into your grave.† A flash of fear showed in Edmund's eye then, but he fought it down and affected his usual swaggering smirk. â€Å"His life is on your word, little man.† The bastard turned and strutted down the corridor. Drool looked back, a big tear welling in his eye as he realized what was happening. I waved him on. â€Å"I'd have taken the other two if you'd dirked him,† said Curan. The other guard nodded in agreement. â€Å"Evil bastard was asking for it.† â€Å"Well, now you fucking tell me,† said I. Another guard hurried out of the hall then, and seeing it was only the fool with his captain, reported, â€Å"Captain, the king's food taster. He's dead, sir.† Three friends had I.