Aging Aircraft and Structural Failures

Aloha Airlines Flight 243: Structural Failure of an Aging Aircraft Safety 335 aloha Airlines Flight 243: Structural Failure of an Aging Aircraft The age of the United States' commercial aircraft fleet is a serious problem. The average age of commercial airline fleets is continuing to increase. As of year 2000, more than 2,500 commercial aircraft in the United States were flying beyond their original design lives. In 1988, a major incident in which the top peeled off an Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 in flight, sweeping a flight attendant to her death, was blamed on weak maintenance of the old aircraft's structure.The flight attendant was swept overboard at 24,000 feet after a spontaneous failure of one of the aircraft's longitudinal joints. The aircraft involved, a Boeing 737, had been subjected to the severe operating environment particular to inter-island service during its 19-year lifespan. The Aloha Airlines 737 was the second oldest aircraft still in service. The aircraft, which had been designed for 75,000 flight cycles, had actually accumulated 89,680 cycles with stage lengths of 20 to 40 minutes. This intensive use also inflicts the loads associated with repeated pressurization and de-pressurization of the aircraft's cabin.Fuselage fatigue damage is primarily caused by the application of the pressurization cycle that occurs on each flight. Typically, the inter-island carriers fly at 23,000 ft while the cabin is pressurized to 8,000 creating a 5 psi differential. The fuselage of this aircraft suffered from extensive Multiple Site Damage (MSD). MSD occurs when stress factors are fairly uniform, so that small cracks appear and grow at roughly the same rate. Each individual crack is difficult to see and by itself poses little problem; however, the small cracks can join together to form a large crack (Oster, Clinton, Strong, Zorn, 1992).The Aloha 737's MSD's were cracks extending on both sides of rivet holes along the upper row of the lap joints along the fuselag e. Two other major fuselage failures existed on the upper row of rivets on the S10L lap joint. Near the forward entry door, the MSD cracks had joined to form a single crack about 6-8 inches long. Two passengers noticed this crack as they boarded the aircraft in Hilo, HI. The crack was long enough and wide enough that the internal fiberglass insulation was being extruded from it. The passengers did not report the crack, feeling that if the aircraft was not safe, the airline would obviously not fly it (NTSB, 1988).The focus of the National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) hearings were the failure of the Boeing 737's design to Safely Decompress. Contrary to the NTSB findings, the fuselage did tear open a Safe Decompression Flap as designed. If the Flight Attendant had not been standing directly underneath the Flap when it occurred, the plane would probably not have suffered an explosive decompression (Hinder, 2000). The forces exerted on the fuselage by leveling of the aircraft wa s the final blow that caused a link up of MSD cracks at BS500 (Approximately Row 5) which were arrested by the Safe Decompression design causing the Flap to open.At the instant in time represented by Figure 1, the aircraft is in the process of rotating from climb to level flight, there is a tear in the S10L lap joint at approximately in front of row 1 and a Safe Decompression Flap at approximately Row 5. [pic] Figure 1 The cabin was pressurized. With the approximately 10†³ x10†³ opening, the internal cabin air began to escape at over 700 mph. The Flight Attendant who was reaching to pick up a cup from Passenger 5B was immediately sucked into but not through the Safe Decompression Flap. Only the Flight Attendant's right arm and head were forced through the opening.This effectively slammed the door shut on a 700 mph jet stream. The resultant reaction to corking a high velocity fluid flow is called a Fluid Hammer. The attempt to stop the high velocity airflow causes a pressur e spike of high value (hundreds of pounds per square inch) and short duration (only tens of thousandths of a second). The fuselage integrity was severely degraded due to the MSD and its 0. 036†³ (36 thousandths of an inch) pressure boundary wall thickness is only designed for about 8. 5 psi normal operating pressure differential. The fuselage could barely contain the normal operating pressure.The Fluid Hammer caused the fuselage skin to crack (Hinder, 2000). Fluid flow always follows the path of least resistance. With the Flap at row 5 plugged and the fuselage skin between in front of row 1 and row 5 completely severed, the internal cabin pressure begins to push outward on the fuselage skin, sensing the weakest point as halfway between in front of row 1 and row 5. This is the location identified by the NTSB as the probable location of the initial failure. For the next 0. 6 seconds (6 tenths of a second) the aircraft is propelled nose down and to the right by the internal air es caping from the disintegrating fuselage.The Flight Attendant begins to slide toward the rear of the aircraft as the lap joint separates. See Figure 2. [pic] Figure 2 For the next 1. 2 seconds the aircraft the moves up and to the left as sections of the fuselage continue to peel away. The section between row 1 and row 5 blows out and downward. The roof section blows up, tearing from the row 1 seam. At row 5, the roof crack angles diagonally back toward the top centerline of the aircraft. Aft of row 5, along the lap joint, above the joint, a diagonal piece folds back over on itself.Below the joint, the window belt section tears in a backward direction. The Flight Attendant continues to slide rearward. See Figure 3. [pic] Figure 3 The window belt section aft of row 5 and below the lap-joint folds back over rearward. This pops out the window just forward of the row 6 seam and tears the fuselage from the window to the lap joint. This allows the Flight Attendant's head and body to drop ap proximately 1 foot just as the section slams against the exterior fuselage. See Figure 4. [pic] Figure 4 The pilots told of a sudden whooshing sound at 24,000 ft. flying debris in the cockpit and a bouncing 25-mile descent with one engine out. The flight was diverted to Maui and a successful landing was accomplished with a significant portion of the fuselage missing. Sixty-nine of the 95 passengers sustained injuries from flailing wires, metal strips and wind burn (Hinder, 2000). According to the NTSB's report on the investigation, contributing factors were improper inspection by company maintenance personnel, inadequate supervision of maintenance personnel, inadequate supervision by the FAA and inadequate aircraft equipment from the manufacturer.Numerous other structural failure incidents of note in the same time period also brought to light significant problems to be addressed. In October 1988, a foot long crack was noted in a B-737 while stripping paint. In December 1988, a B-727 was noted with a 14†³ crack in the fuselage. In February 1989, a B-747 cargo door failed, the fuselage was torn off and nine passengers were sucked to their deaths. In July 1989, a pre-flight inspection revealed a 20†³ long fatigue crack in the wing of a B-727 (Oster, et al, 1992).Though durability and damage tolerance were issues prior to this, the Aloha incident is generally considered to be the start of the Federal Aviation Authorities (FAA) Focused Aging Aircraft Program. The first response to the accident was an industry-wide review of the adequacy of aircraft design and efficacy of maintenance programs. In general, the aviation community found that with proper maintenance and structural modifications and with attention to service related damage such as fatigue and corrosion, the service lives of airplanes could be safely extended (Seher, Smith, 2001).To identify and rectify issues related to operation of aircraft beyond their designed service objectives, the Air Wor thiness Assurance Working Group (AAWG), the National Aging Aircraft Program, and the National Aging Aircraft Research Programs were established. The National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) and the United States Air Force joined in and concentrated on research in fatigue and fracture issues associated with crack initiation, crack growth and residual strength of multi-site damaged fuselage skins (Seher, Smith, 2001).Though progress has been made in the area of aging aircraft, the continued desire to maintain aircraft in revenue service beyond their design service objectives and the poor financial performance of carriers, there will almost certainly be new structural integrity problems. It is the mission of the FAA's Aging Aircraft and Continued Airworthiness Programs to ensure that age-related problems are predicted and eliminated or mitigated prior to their having a major impact on safety. References Hinder, Prof. , (2000, January 17).Flight 243 Separation Sequence, Pos ted to Disaster city, archived at www. disastercity. com. National Transportation Safety Board Report Identification: DCA88MA054-AAR-89/03. Air Carrier Aloha Airlines Inc. , April 28, 1988, Maui, HI. Oster, C. , Strong, J. , Zorn, K. , (1992), Why Airplanes Crash, Aviation Safety in a Changing World, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Seher, C. , Smith, C. , (2001), Managing the Aging Aircraft Problem, Symposium on Aging Mechanisms and Control, Manchester, England.

Logistics Management Essay

He costs of satisfying customer demand can be significant and yet, surprisingly, they are not always fully understood by organizations. One reason for this is that traditional accounting systems tend to be focused around understanding product costs rather than customer costs. Whilst logistics costs will vary by company and by industry, across the economy as a whole that total cost of logistics as a percentage of gross domestic product is estimated to be close to 10 per cent in the US1 and in other countries costs of similar magnitudes will be encountered. However, logistics activity does not just generate cost, it also generates revenue through the provision of availability – thus it is important to understand the profit impact of logistics and supply chain decisions. At the same time logistics activity requires resources in the form of fixed capital and working capital and so there are financial issues to be considered when supply chain strategies are devised. Logistics and the bottom line Today’s turbulent business environment has produced an ever greater awareness amongst managers of the financial dimension of decision making. The bottom line’ has become the driving force which, perhaps erroneously, determines the direction of the company. In some cases this has led to a limiting, and potentially dangerous, focus on the short term. Hence we find that investment in brands, in R&D and in capacity may well be curtailed if there is no prospect of an immediate payback. Just as powerful an influence on decision making and management horizons is cash flow. Strong positive cash flow has become as much a desired goal of management as profit. For example, many successful retailers have long since recognized that very small net margins can lead to excellent ROI if the productivity of capital is high, e. g. limited inventory, high sales per square foot, premises that are leased rather than owned and so on. Figure 3. 1 illustrates the opportunities that exist for boosting ROI through either achieving better margins or higher assets turns or both. Each ‘iso-curve’ reflects the different ways the same ROI can be achieved through specific margin/asset turn combination. The challenge to logistics management is to find ways of moving the iso-curve to the right. Logistics impact on ROI Logistics and the balance sheet As well as its impact on operating income (revenue less costs) logistics can affect the balance sheet of the business in a number of ways. In today’s financially-oriented business environment improving the shape of the balance sheet through better use of resources has become a priority. Once again better logistics management has the power to transform performance in this crucial area. Figure 3. 3 summarizes the major elements of the balance sheet and links to each of the relevant logistics management components. Balance sheet Assets Cash Logistics variable Order cycle time Order completion rate Receivables Inventories Property, plant and equipment Liabilities Current liabilities Debt Equity Invoice accuracy Inventory Distribution facilities and equipment Plant and equipment Purchase order quantities Financing options for inventory, plant and equipment Fig. 3. 3 Logistics management and the balance sheet Cash and receivables This component of current assets is crucial to the liquidity of the business. In recent years its importance has been recognized as more companies become squeezed for cash. It is not always recognized however that logistics variables have a direct impact on this part of the balance sheet. For example, the shorter the order cycle time, from when the customer places the order to when the goods are delivered, the sooner the invoice can be issued. Likewise the order completion rate can affect the cash flow if the invoice is not issued until after the goods are despatched. One of the less obvious logistics variables affecting cash and receivables is invoice accuracy. If the customer finds that his invoice is inaccurate he is unlikely to pay and the payment lead time will be extended until the problem is rectified. Inventories Fifty per cent or more of a company’s current assets will often be tied up in inventory. Logistics is concerned with all inventory within the business from raw materials, subassembly or bought-in components, through work-in-progress to finished goods. The company’s policies on inventory levels and stock locations will clearly influence the size of total inventory. Materials handling equipment, vehicles and other equipment involved in storage and transport can also add considerably to the total sum of fixed assets. Many companies have outsourced the physical distribution of their products partly to move assets off their balance sheet. Warehouses, for example, with their associated storage and handling equipment represent a sizeable investment and the question should be asked: ‘Is this the most effective way to deploy our assets? ’ Current liabilities The current liabilities of the business are debts that must be paid in cash within a specified period of time. From the logistics point of view the key elements are accounts payable for bought-in materials, components, etc. This is an area where a greater integration of purchasing with operations management can yield dividends. The traditional concepts of economic order quantities can often lead to excessive levels of raw materials inventory as those quantities may not reflect actual manufacturing or distribution requirements. The phasing of supplies to match the total logistics requirements of the system can be achieved through the twin techniques of materials requirement planning (MRP) and distribution requirements planning (DRP). If premature commitment of materials can be minimized this should lead to an improved position on current liabilities. Debt/equity Whilst the balance between debt and equity has many ramifications for the financial management of the total business it is worth reflecting on the impact of alternative logistics strategies. More companies are leasing plant facilities and equipment and thus converting a fixed asset into a continuing expense. The growing use of ‘third-party’ suppliers for warehousing and transport instead of owning and managing these facilities in-house is a parallel development.

Macroeconomics – institutions by Acemoglu

In Progress. Abstract: In this paper, we discuss how and why institutions— broadly, the economic and political organization of societies— affect economic incentives and outcomes. After briefly surveying a number of theories of institutional differences across countries, we focus on two questions: why societies may choose institutions that are not good for economic development, and why institutions, even bad Institutions, persist.In light of the Ideas we develop, we discuss three case studies of Institutions alluding and persistence: the united States, India and Guatemala. L. Introduction Institutions, defined broadly as the political and economic organization of societies, differ markedly across countries and over time. For example, until recently, a large number of societies were organized along socialist lines, with widespread collective ownership of the means of production and centrally planned resource allocation, while much of the rest of the world was capitalist, with predominantly private ownership and resources allocated Vela markets.For much of the 1 8th and 9th centuries, a number of societies, Including the Caribbean, much of Central and Latin America, and parts of Asia, were organized with political and economic power concentrated in the hands of a small elite, and relied on productive relationships based on slavery and forced labor. In contrast, economic and political power was more equally distributed in parts of Europe, North America and Australia, and the majority of laborers were free.Similarly, as emphasized by North and Thomas (1973), North and Whiniest (1989) and Till (1 990), there were Important differences In the organization of the European societies during the 17th century. While England and the Netherlands had developed limited governments, France and Spain had absolutist regimes.Economic theory and basic common sense suggest that differences in the organization of society should have an effect on economic outcomes: when institutions ensure that a potential investor has property rights over the proceeds from his Investments, he Is more likely to invest than when he expects the fruits of his efforts to be taken by other parties In the economy or by the government. An obvious hypothesis is then to link variations in economic performance across countries to their institutions. We refer to this point of view as the institutions hypothesis.According to one version of this hypothesis, what is crucial is whether the organization of the society ensures that a broad cross-section of the society have effective property rights, so that those with productive emphasis on â€Å"a broad cross-section of the society' is meant to capture the notion that it is not sufficient for the rights of a small elite, landowners, dictators or Politburo members, to be enforced. Citizens need to have effective property rights, and be involved in politics, at least some degree, to ensure the continuation of these repertory rights in the future.Do we see marked differences in the economic performance of societies with different institutions? The examples mentioned in the first paragraph suggest so: while West Germany prospered with a capitalist system, East Germany did much less well under socialism. While Western Europe, North America and Australia grew rapidly, the elite-dominated societies of the Caribbean, Central America and India stagnated throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. As emphasized by North and Thomas (1973), while England and the Netherlands prospered during the 17th century, Spain and France failed to do so.Also telling are cases where large changes in institutions are correlated with radically changed growth paths. Examples of this are Argentina in the sass's with the rise of populism and Person, South Korea during the early sass's with the transition from the Rhea to the Park regime, and Indonesia in 1965 with the transition between Saguaro and Short. In addition to these selective examp les, much empirical evidence suggests that institutional differences are a major source of the differences in economic performance across countries.For example, cross-country work by a number of economists and political scientists found a first-order effect of institutions on growth or the level of income (e. G. , Knack and Keeper, 1995, or Hall and Jones, 1999). More recently, in Guacamole, Johnson and Robinson (2000) we found that as much as % of the income gap between the top and bottom of the world income distribution may be due to differences in their institutions. 4 But these findings pose as many questions as they answer: 1 . If some institutions generate more income and growth, why do a large number of societies adopt institutions that are bad for economic development? . Why do institutions that are detrimental to economic performance persist rather than being overhauled at the first opportunity? Despite the importance of these questions for understanding differences in econ omic performance across countries, there is relatively little research on this topic. In this paper, we develop a number of conjectures related to these questions. Then, in light of these ideas, we discuss three case studies of institution building and persistence: the U. S. , India and Guatemala.In the process, we also provide a brief survey of a number of theories of comparative institutions. II. Institutions As emphasized in the introduction, our focus is on the set of institutions— the organization of society— that determine economic incentives. Why such institutions and social arrangements will affect economic outcomes is clear: economic actors will only undertake investments when they expect to be rewarded for their spending and effort. In a society where property rights are not well enforced, investment and output will be low.We therefore take the degree of enforcement of property rights to be a central feature of the institutions and the broad organization of a society. To of private property, which we take to correspond to a set of institutions ensuring that a broad cross-section of society have effective property rights. 2. Extractive institutions, which place political power in the hands of a small elite. With extractive institutions, the majority of the population does not have effective property rights, since the political power of the elite means that they can hold up the citizens after they undertake their investments.We expect institutions of private property to encourage investment and development, while extractive institutions are less likely to dead to high investment and successful economic outcomes. Notice that there is more to institutions than the legal code or the formal definition of property rights at a point in time; in particular, political institutions matter. This is for the simple reason that in a society where there are few constraints on political elites, these agents can change the legal code or manipulate the ex isting property rights to their advantage. Therefore, effective constraints on political elites are an essential ingredient of institutions of private property. In reality, there are many intermediate cases teens the extremes of institutions of private property and extractive institutions, and a complex interaction between the exact form of the political and economic institutions and whether they provide effective property rights protection to citizens. There is also a deep and difficult question of how the state commits to providing property rights to the citizens (see Whiniest, 1997, for a discussion of this problem).To limit the discussion, we do not focus on these issues. So what determines whether a society ends up with institutions of private property or extractive institutions? Let us distinguish four broad theories, which we call: 1. The efficient institutions view. 2. The incidental institutions view. 3. The rent-seeking view. 4. The inappropriate institutions view. We now discuss what we mean by these different views, and examine some selective examples of institutional theories falling within each category. . The Efficient Institutions View According to this view, societies will choose the institutions that maximize their total surplus. How this surplus will be distributed among different groups or agents does not affect the choice of institutions. The underlying reasoning of this view comes from the Cease Theorem. Ronald Cease (1960) argued that when different economic parties could negotiate costless, they will be able to bargain to internalize potential externalities.The farmer, who suffers from the pollution created by the nearby factory, can pay the factory owner to reduce pollution. The same reasoning can be applied to political situations. If the current laws or institutions benefit a certain group while creating a disproportionate cost for another, these two groups can negotiate to change the institutions. By doing so they will increase the size of the total surplus (â€Å"the pie† that they have to divide between themselves), and they can hen bargain over the distribution of this additional surplus.Many different versions of the efficient institutions view have been proposed. Demesne (1967) argued that private property emerged from common property when land become sufficiently scarce and valuable that it was efficient to privative it. Other famous examples are Case's (1936) earlier work and the more formal analysis by Grossman and Hart (1986), is more concerned with the governance of firms or markets than the political organization of societies, but his reasoning was guided by the same principle.North ND Thomas applied this reasoning to the nature of feudal institutions arguing that they were an efficient contract between serfs and Lords. While Williamson and North and Thomas do not specify how different parties will reach agreement to achieve efficient institutions, Becker (1960) and Whitman (1989) have invest igated how democracies can reach such agreements via competition among pressure groups and political parties.In their view, an inefficient institution cannot be stable because a political entrepreneur has an incentive to propose a better institution and with the extra surplus generated will be able to make him more attractive to voters. We believe that, despite correctly emphasizing certain forces that are likely to be at work, the efficient institutions view does not provide the right framework for an analysis of the differences in institutions across countries. Both historical and econometric evidence suggests that the economic costs to societies of extractive institutions have been substantial.For example, our estimates in Guacamole, Johnson and Robinson (2000) suggest that changing Insignia's or Sierra Lens's institutions to those of Chile loud lead, in the long run, to a more than 7-fold increase in these countries' income. It is difficult to argue that these institutions are t herefore efficient for Nigeria, Sierra Leone or many other less-developed countries in Africa or Latin America. In the rest of the paper, we therefore focus on theories of institutions where societies may end up with institutions that are not optimal for aggregate growth or income. 2.The Incidental Institutions View The efficient institutions view is explicitly based on economic reasoning: the costs and benefits of different institutions are weighed against each other to determine which institutions should prevail. Efficiency arises because individuals calculate according to the social costs and benefits. Institutions are therefore choices. A different approach, popular among many political scientists and sociologists, is to downplay choices over institutions, but think of institutions as the byproduct of other social interactions. Here, we discuss three such theories.The first is the theory developed by Barrington Moore (1966) in his Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy, th e second is Till's (1990) and Herb's (2001) theory of state formation, hill the third is Burner's (1976) theory of the emergence of capitalism in England. Barrington Moore constructed his famous theory in an attempt to explain the different paths of political development in Britain, Germany and Russia. In particular, he investigated why Britain had evolved into a democracy, while Germany succumbed to fascism and Russia had a communist revolution.Moore stressed the extent of centralization of agriculture and resulting labor relations in the countryside, the strength of the ‘bourgeoisie,' and the nature of class coalitions. In his theory, democracy emerged when there was a strong, politically assertive, immemorial middle class, and when agriculture had commercialese so that there were no feudal labor relations in the countryside. Fascism arose when the middle classes were weak and entered into a political coalition with landowners.Finally, a agriculture was not commercialese and rural labor was repressed through feudal relationships. In Moor's theory, therefore, class coalitions and the way agriculture is organized determine which political institutions will emerge. Although Moore is not explicitly concerned with economic development, it is a direct implication of his analysis that societies may end up with institutions that do not maximize income or growth, for example, when they take the communist revolution path.While this theory is highly suggestive and clearly captures some of the potentially significant comparative facts there are clear problems with it. For instance, though Moor's remark â€Å"no bourgeoisie, no democracy' is famous, it is not clear from his analysis whether this is Just an empirical correlation or a causal theory. More generally, Moore does not clarify the connection between the formation of class coalitions and political outcomes. It is also not clear whether this theory is empirically successful.There are many examples of societ ies with relatively strong capitalist classes in Latin America, such as Argentina and Chile, which did not make the transition to a consolidated democracy until recently. In fact, in these societies capitalist classes appear to have supported the coups against democracy, suggesting that the role of the poor segments of the society (the working class) in inducing demagnification could be more important than that of the bourgeoisie (see Archduchesses, Stephens and Stephens, 1992, Guacamole and Robinson, Bibb).In a very different vein, Till (1990), building on the Hibernia tradition, proposed a theory of the formation of modern states. He argued extensively that modern state institutions such as fiscal systems, bureaucracy and parliaments are closely related to the need to raise resources to fight wars and thus arose in places with incessant inter-state competition. Herbs (2001) has recently provided a substantive extension of this line of research by applying it to the evolution of st ate institutions in Africa.He argues that the poor functioning of many modern African states is due to the fact that they caked the features–high population density and inter-state warfare— necessary for the emergence of the modern state. Although interesting and sweeping, this theory does not seem to accord well with a number of major facts. In Guacamole, Johnson and Robinson (2001 a), we documented that among the former colonies, it was the less densely settled places that became richer.In fact, North America, Australia and New Zealand were very sparsely settled in 1 500, especially when compared to West Africa around the same time. Despite this, they developed effective states and institutions of private property. This suggests that the issues stressed by Till and Herbs are not the major determinants of institutions, at least, in the context of the development of institutions among the former European colonies, including Africa. Burner's (1976) theory of the rise of capitalism in Europe can also be thought as an example of the incidental institutions view.Although Brenner subscribes to the Marxist view of feudalism as an extractive institution (see next subsection), he interprets the rise of capitalism as the byproduct of the collapse of existing social institutions after the Black Death. Brenner argues that the decline of feudalism resulted from the successful class struggle by the relatively powerful British peasantry. Brenner, however, believes that the peasantry's aim was not to build capitalism; capitalism just emerged like an incidental phoenix from the ashes of feudalism.Because, economic growth required this set of (extractive) institutions to be replaced by capitalist institutions. Therefore, Burner's work also gives us an incidental- institutions theory for why some societies grow faster. None of these theories provide a framework that is at the same time consistent tit the first-order facts of comparative development and useful for generating predictions. Therefore, it is difficult to apply these theories to understand why some countries develop extractive institutions.Moreover, being trained as economists, we find it to be a shortcoming of this group of theories that institutions and political outcomes arise as byproducts, not as the direct consequences of actions taken by rational agents. The fact that the key outcomes are byproducts of other interactions, not choices, leads to the additional problem that these theories often do not generate tight empirical predictions (I. E. Comparative static). But an analysis of comparative development, above all else, requires comparative static results regarding when institutions of private property will emerge.In the remainder of the paper, we therefore focus on the rent-seeking and inappropriate institutions views to build a simple framework for comparative development. 3. The Rent-seeking View According to this view, institutions are not always chosen by the whole so ciety (and not for the benefit of the whole society), but by the groups that control political power at the time (perhaps as a result of conflict with other groups demanding more rights). These groups will choose the institutions that maximize their own rents, and the institutions that result may not coincide with those that maximize total surplus.For example, institutions that enforce property rights by restricting state predation will not be in the interest of a ruler who wants to appropriate assets in the future. By establishing property rights, this ruler would be reducing his own future rents, so may well prefer extractive institutions to institutions of private property. Therefore, equilibrium institutions will not be those that maximize the size of the overall pie, but the slice of the pie taken by the powerful groups. Why doesn't a Cease theorem type reasoning apply?Although a large literature, especially in industrial organization, has emphasized how informational problems may limit the empirical applications of the Cease theorem, we believe that the main reason for the non-applicability of the Cease theorem in politics is commitment problems (see Guacamole, 2001, for a more detailed discussion of this issue). If a ruler has political power concentrated in his hands, he cannot commit not to expropriate assets or revenues in the future. Effective property rights require that he credibly relinquishes political power to some extent.But according to the Occasion bargain, he has to be compensated for what he could have received using this power. Herein lies the problem. When he relinquishes his power, then he has no guarantees that he will receive the promised payments in the future. Therefore, by their very nature, institutions that regulate political and social power create commitment problems, and prevent Occasion bargains that are necessary to reach efficient outcomes. As an application, consider the decision of a powerful rich elite to mount a coup in a populist redistributive regime, such as that of Salvador Allendale in Chile in 1973.By undertaking a coup, the rich will ensure that economically. Why wouldn't the elite enter into a Occasion bargain with Allendale who would wish to place future restrictions on taxes so as to remove the threat of the coup? The problem, as pointed out and analyzed in Guacamole and Robinson (2001 a), is that the democracy cannot promise not to increase taxes again once the threat of the coup disappears. By its very nature, taxes are set by the politically powerful agents, determined by the institutions at that time.Promises made at the past may be worthless when they are not backed by political power. The first systematic development of this point of view is the economics literature is North (1981), who argued in the chapter on â€Å"A Neoclassical Theory of the State† that agents who controlled the state should be modeled as self-interested. He then argued that the set of property rights wh ich they would choose for society would be those that maximized their payoff and because of transactions costs' these would not necessarily be the set which maximized social welfare.Though his analysis does not clarify what he meant by transactions costs, problems of commitment might be one mispronunciation for this. The notion that elites may opt for extractive institutions to increase their incomes is of course also present in much of the Marxist and dependency theory literature. For example, Dobb (1948), Brenner (1976) and Hilton (1981) saw feudalism, contrary to North and Thomas (1976)g's model, as a set of institutions designed to extract rents from the peasants at the expense of social welfare.Dependency theorists such as Wholesalers (1974-1982), Rodney (1972), Frank (1978) and Cards and Falsetto (1979) argued that the international trading system was designed to extract rents from developing countries to the benefit of developed Mounties. Perhaps, the earliest, and often igno red, contribution to this line of reasoning is in the book by Beard (1913). Anticipating many of the insights of rational choice political science literature, Beard argued that the U. S.Constitution was an institution designed to benefit those who wrote it (such as James Madison) at the expense of the rest of society. Another important example of inefficient institutions designed to extract rents from the society is the Spanish colonial system (Stein and Stein, 1970, Coauthors, 1978, Lockhart and Schwartz, 1983). Finally, the notion that leaver is an inefficient institution designed to extract rents from slaves is also widespread (for example, Williams, 1944, Geneses, 1963, Beckoned, 1972).More recent, and for our purposes more relevant, contributions in this tradition have sought to explain comparative development. For example, in the context of Africa, Bates (1981) formulated an influential and important theory based on rent-seeking by elites. Bates argued that when elites were no t invested in the productive sectors of the economy, mostly agriculture in the context of Africa, and had to rely on urban interests to remain in power, they were likely to distort prices, for example by using marketing boards to transfer resources from the rural areas to the cities.The implications of this for political stability and economic growth were disastrous. Anger and Soulful (1997, 2000) have used related ideas to analyze long-term development in the Americas. They argued that the different paths of development observed in North and Latin America in the last 300 years were due to institutional differences. In North America institutions promoted development, in Latin America they did not. Why did Latin America develop a set of institutions that impeded Caribbean, the factor endowments were suitable for growing crops such as sugarcane.Such crops had large technical scale economies and could be cultivated by slaves, factors that led to large concentrations of landownership an d repressive institutions designed to control labor. Therefore, despite their costs for economic development, extractive institutions were adopted by elites who benefited from the system. On the other hand, in North America, factor endowments were suitable for growing crops with limited scale economies such as wheat, and this led to an egalitarian distribution of land, income and political power.Their theory therefore emphasizes the impact of factor endowments and technology on inequality and institutions building, and ultimately economic development. In Guacamole, Johnson and Robinson (2000, 2001 a), we developed a complementary theory, emphasizing how European colonialists set up institutions of private property in areas where they settled in large numbers, since these institutions were directly affecting their own investments and well-being. This led us to emphasize how European settlements ere often conducive to the development of institutions of private property in the colonies .In contrast, European colonists introduced or took over existing extractive institutions in other colonies. They were more likely to do so when they did not settle, for example due to an adverse disease environment, and when extractive institutions were more profitable, for example, as in Central America where the densely settled large population could be forced to work for low wages in plantations or mines. These extractive institutions did not benefit the society as a whole, but they were inefficacy for the Europeans, who held the political power and were the extractors.We believe that the rent-seeking view provides the best framework for thinking about why certain countries ended up with extractive institutions, and provides a number of useful comparative static, which will be discussed in Section Ill. 4. The Inappropriate Institutions View According to this view, institutions may be efficient when they are introduced, but they are also costly to change (see below on this). Ther efore, institutions that are efficient for a set of circumstances may no longer be efficient once the environment hinges. Nevertheless, it may be difficult or too costly to change these institutions at this point.The idea here goes back to Crosschecking (1963). In the context of financial institutions, Crosschecking argued that certain arrangements, such as bank finance, might be more appropriate for backward countries trying to catch up. This is widely thought to be a good explanation for why banks are more prevalent in Germany, even today when Germany is no longer a backward country. So perhaps, social arrangements that were introduced at some point as an optimal response to the resistances may continue to prevail, even after they cease to be the optimal response.In the context of financial institutions, this point is developed in Guacamole, Action and Kilobit (2001). Another economic example is the QWERTY typewriter keyboard. David (1986) argued that this was appropriate at the t ime because it slowed down the speed of typing, when the rudimentary nature of typewriters meant that rapid typing would make them Jam. However, despite the fact that the QWERTY arrangement was inefficient once the basic technology improved soon after, it has similar thesis.Perhaps, extractive institutions were appropriate for certain resistances, but they continue to apply even after they cease to be the efficient institutional arrangement. Related ideas have been suggested in the literature. For example, Wittingly (1957) argued that centralized despotism, which may not have been very costly in terms of economic outcomes in China before the 1 5th century and arose as the result of providing desirable public goods such as irrigation, persisted almost to the present, creating a substantial economic and social burden.Given how long institutions persist (see Section ‘V) the view that institutions of a different age ay continue to apply even when they become costly to economic suc cess is highly plausible. Nevertheless, in the context of comparative development, it appears more useful to combine the inappropriate institutions view with the rent-seeking view, explicitly allowing for political elites to introduce inefficient institutions. In fact, in Guacamole, Johnson and Robinson (2001 a), we suggested a hypothesis combining the rent-seeking and inappropriate institutions views, and provided evidence in favor of this hypothesis.We argued and empirically demonstrated that extractive institutions, tit power concentrated in the hand of a small elite, were much less costly during the age of agriculture than during the age of industry. When agriculture is the main source of income, and the political elite owns the land, this elite will have, to a first approximation, adequate incentives to increase the productivity of the land. In contrast, in the age of industry, many different agents, not previously part of the ruling elite, need to undertake investments and be involved in productive activities.Without effective property rights, these agents are unlikely to invest, so extractive institutions become much more costly once industrialization opportunities arrive on the scene. This explains why the sugar colonies of Barbados, Haiti and Jamaica were amongst the richest places in the world in 1700 but rapidly fell behind when industrial technologies became available. Overall, we therefore conclude that to understand the significant differences in how countries are organized, we need to move away from the pure efficiency view.Moreover, existing series of institutional differences based on the incidental institutions view cannot provide a satisfactory tarring point, and make less sharp empirical predictions, since institutions are simply byproducts of other social actions. Instead, we believe that conflict over the distribution of rents matters, and the rent seeking view provides the best starting place for an analysis of institutional differences across countries.In addition, there may be an important element of the inappropriate institutions view, so that institutions that were introduced at a certain point in time may become less appropriate and more â€Å"harmful† in the future, but may still remain in place. Ill. Institutional Origins The rent-seeking and inappropriate institutions views do not immediately generate a theory of comparative institutions. They simply point out that inefficient institutions may be chosen by political elites, and the institutions in place may become more costly for growth over time.As discussed above, by the institutions hypothesis, we mean that differences in the development experiences of countries can be explained by differences in their institutions. To make this hypothesis operational, we need to choose institutions of private property. In other words, we need to develop comparative static on institution building. This is not an easy task. In fact, some of the pioneering theories of institutions, such as North (1981), give us few clues about when we should expect extractive institutions to prevail.Here, we highlight a few potential determinants of what type of institutions politically powerful groups will choose: 1. Economic Interests: A first determinant of whether institutions of private property will emerge is whether they will lead to outcomes that are in interests of the politically powerful agents. For example, institutions that restrict state predation will not be in the interest of a ruler ho wants to appropriate assets in the future.Yet this strategy may be in the interest of a ruler who recognizes that only such guarantees will encourage citizens to undertake substantial investments or lend him money, or will protect his own rents. They will also be in the interest of the major groups that can undertake investment in production activities in the future. Anger and Solidify explanation for why extractive institutions emerged in the Caribbean but not in North America falls within this category. In the Caribbean, the factor endowments made extractive institutions more profitable for the elite.In particular, sugar production, which could exploit economies of scale and profitably employ slave labor, was conducive to a society where a small elite would control both political and economic power. Our argument in Guacamole, Johnson and Robinson (2000) for why European settlement in the colonies led to institutions of private property is also based on the same reasoning. When a large number of Europeans settled in an area, they preferred institutions enforcing property rights, since these property rights would enable them to undertake investments.Our argument in Guacamole Johnson and Robinson (2001 a) is also related. There, we suggested that high population density and relative prosperity (I. E. , GAP per capita) of the colonized territory encouraged European colonialists to set up extractive institutions. The reasoning is that high po pulation density implied a large labor force that Europeans could force to work for low wages, and both high population density and the relative prosperity of the population provided Europeans with a greater resource base for extraction or taxation. Economic interests† therefore suggest that we should expect extractive institutions to develop when the powerful agents have little to gain from enforcing property sights because they have few investment opportunities themselves and are not linked to other productive agents in the society, and when there are resources, such as crops or abundant labor, that can be effectively exploited by extractive 2.Political Losers: Another important factor is whether institutional development will destabilize the system, making it less likely that elites will remain in power after reforms. An institutional setup encouraging investment and adoption of new technologies may be blocked by elites when they fear that this process of growth and social change will

Environment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Environment - Essay Example A continuing increase of greenhouse gas emanates from the burning of the fossil fuels from the ground. Burning of coal is not logical enough since it increases the amount of the carbon dioxide to the environment. According to United Nations environmental study, carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere can stop by burying the biomass and pickling of trees. The increment of global temperatures leads to increased melting of snow ice and the rising of the sea level evidently shows the warming of the globe. The warming is determined by high average temperature near the earth’s surface. The temperature increases due to depletion of the ozone layer directly hit by the ultraviolet rays (Haldar, 2010). Temperature rise resultes into many disasters including the formation of cyclones, causing mass destruction to human life and property. The hurricanes, tornados and the typhoons are the worst calamities ever and have claimed several live of individuals. Absorption and emission of the infrared radiation by gases in the atmosphere warms the planets lower atmosphere and the surface. This process means the warming effect of about 33% of the stratosphere. The cutting of trees for energy and other industrial functions increases the quantity of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, therefore, contributing to global warming. It accounts for 7 percent of the greenhouse gas emission. Forest act as the sink of the carbon dioxide within the atmosphere thereby playing a vital role in controlling the amount of heat produced to the environment. They also help in the absorption of the much water poured inland during the cyclones. Aerosols produced by volcanoes and pollutants from industries causes global dimming and the gradual reduction of the amount of solar reaching the earth surface. Aerosols bring a cooling effect by blocking the direct sun from reaching the earth surface, therefore,

Questions & Contentions week 2 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Questions & Contentions week 2 - Assignment Example This article illustrates the four distinct interest groups that struggled for control of schools for over seven decade duration, via the education curriculum (Parkerson, 1998). Humanists favored continuous development of the reasoning ability, and also western cultural practices. Developmentalists illustrated that the natural development progress of the child is the very important aspect, of scientifically determining teaching areas (Spring, 2008)). Social efficiency educators strived to ensure schools use scientific management methods education management; and to differentiate education in accordance to the perceived needs and abilities of students (Theobald, 2005). Social meliorists favored using schooling as instrument of social development and progress (Kleibard, 2004). This academic paper analyzes the reality and perceptions of schooling in the society, at the end of nineteenth century. Other changes that started during the duration; like development of railroads, cities and even immigration reached crisis levels (Rury, 2002). The expanding mass media increased the increased popular anxieties. The journalist and other social investigators increasingly illustrated education and schools as joyless (Tyack, 2002). The educators illustrated that the mine works like a muscle, and hence should be exercised continuously through education monotony like drills, verbatim recitations and harsh discipline (Kleiband,

MGT WK3 GROUP ASSIGNMENT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

MGT WK3 GROUP ASSIGNMENT - Essay Example This task is sub-divided into various duties and responsibilities pertaining to the corporation’s workforce. Stewart and Brown (2010) states that the human resource department usually plays a critical role in the organisation, which reflects on the bottom line of the organisation and it even contributes towards that achievement of the organisation strategic goals and missions. Mathis and Jackson (2010) further ads that the human resource management within an organisation can as well contribute to the competitive advantages of an organisation. In regards to the organising function of Microsoft Corporation’s human resource department it can be stated that the department organizes the workforce of the corporation by first ensuring that at all times the corporation has the right staff at the right place in all of its branches across the world. In this regard Stewart and Brown (2010), states that the department organises the recruitment and selection of best-qualified candidates who will work for the corporation in various capacities and who have the potential to help the corporation in achieving is strategic goals and objectives. Secondly, while organising the human resource of the corporation the department undertakes jobs analysis and descriptions in order to ensure that every member of the staff has a clear role in the corporation and that there is no collusion or replication of roles. Equally, during the job analysis, the department clearly outlines the requirements or qualifications that are required from employees in order to be able to perform certain duties and responsibilities as stipulated (Stewart and Brown, 2010)). According to Mathis and Jackson (2010), the human resource department is also tasked with the mandate of organising how each member of the staff will be compensated and they normally organize this

Gun Control is Not the Ticket to Peace Assignment

Gun Control is Not the Ticket to Peace - Assignment Example In this respect, the effectiveness of the gun control laws will be the deterrent of the incidences of shootings, but not stopping such incidences from occurring altogether (Griffith, n.p.). The logic behind this observation is that; the increase in the incidences of shootings is not caused by the highest number of licensed guns that the government has issued to the civilians. In fact, if we would like to be candid with ourselves, we would then agree that virtually all the incidences of public shootings are as a result of guns that are acquired illegally (Smith, n.p.). Consequently, the establishment of gun control laws may help to instil fear on the legal gun holders not to shoot at others, but such efforts will have no effects on the criminals and social deviants who rule and operate the black markets. Further, it is also essential to pose and reflect for a moment on the major reasons why those people who shoot at the public do so. Is it because they have acquired a licensed gun and are trying to test its efficiency? Is it because they have been licensed to hold a gun and they want the rest of the public to realize that they are legal gun holders who can now shoot at anyone, anywhere and at any time? Or is it because such people are feeling that their security is highly threatened by the innocent schoolchildren and so they enter the school premises, draw their guns and shoot at them? The reality attests to none of the above. Thus, the core of the problem does not lie in the possession of a gun; legal or illegal, but in the state of the mind of the gun holder (Pacharis, n.p.). In this respect, if we are to address the problem of people shooting at innocent children and other unarmed members of the public, then we have to think in direction of treating the core of the problem of the attackers, which is their mental health. The tragedy of mass murder is not committed by individuals who are sane, but mostly by just a small section of the society that has a mental health problem.  Ã‚  

Compare and contrast utopian societies Research Paper

Compare and contrast utopian societies - Research Paper Example The Enlightenment was a remarkable time in human history. For many years, humans had lived in an intellectual or cultural â€Å"dark ages† where very little changed and people were wedded to their superstitions. Centuries went by and nothing really progressed. Instead of testing the world around them they simply accepted what clergymen or monarchs told them was true and left it at that. They didn’t test their limits; they just read old books and believed the facts in them. But this state of affairs could not last forever. There is an impulse, a curiosity, in humans that seeks sensible explanations. In the 17th century the Enlightenment began. Motivated by trade, the printing press, and a number of very significant intellectual leaders, this period of history saw a lot of the superstitions that guided people’s lives beaten back. Thinkers like Diderot, Voltaire, Adam Smith, and Thomas Jefferson revolutionized the way we think about the world and our place in it. Sc ientific innovation was also telling us more and more about our world, was exposing the fact that it was not run by ghosts and gods. Things began to change dramatically. People believed that a better world could be created through reason. The first utopians became famous. The power of science was very important to the Enlightenment and to its idea that utopias were possible. Science was the process people used to explain the world to themselves and it was really coming into its own. People like Galileo had shown us that the moon was not a perfect sphere and that the patterns of the other planets were not quite as perfect as once thought. People began to think that the world was knowable not by divine revelation but through scientific reasoning and measurement. They took up their slide rules and went to their labs to try to explain things. This was a positive thing. But some people also began to applying strict science to things like politics or race—concepts that

Business Risk - Edsel Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Business Risk - Edsel - Essay Example Although the manufacturing and launching of the Ford Edsel were done by excessive market research and lots of suspense but it could not live up to the expectations of the managers. They created the car as a medium priced automobile with unique features but customers didn’t like it at all. Apart from this, the freezing up of the push button and oil leaking leads it to maximum level of disappointment. Thus the statement states that though the managers created a car for niche market but it could not get succeeded. The car had some unique features to prove itself different from its competitors. It should have a grand success in the competition. I agree with the statement because the company had really spent long time to plan for the unique design to make a change in the market. But situation did not support it as there was a recession in USA that reduces the disposable income of general people. The situation of recession was like a catalyst in the downturn of the sales. Apart from this, some of its features were not liked by the customers and they took it as an old model that they used to get from Chrysler and GM. Along with it the timing of launching was not good as the car was not ready and the period of early fall was considered to sell off the previous models by the dealers. Thus Ford had to compete with the old models of 1957 which were given at a lower price by the dealers to clear the stock.

Music Listening Session #1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Music Listening Session #1 - Essay Example It was as if a particular story were being weaved movement upon movement like an act in a play, while the tempo brought indications where tragedy must come in, the point to remain as such or otherwise jolt-free as if there were magical winds. With its unique style, the sound of antiquity became special that I suddenly felt the ease to span out of my modern musical inclination and reconcile with it each aspect of distortion and fluidity therein. As a consequence of a well-arranged composition, it seemed there was automatic connection somewhere with the perfectly climatic lute instrumentation. I could sense that others watching with me were being made repeatedly optimistic in the process, not initially expecting to have tuned the symphonies in as eventful as it’s wonderfully tragic along the transformation of tamed notes to voracious ones, worthy of encore. In the process, it was particularly captivating to have experienced the detailed rhythmic approach of the Passamezzo della Battaglia  which splendidly attempted to be classic in every way effecting a pitch very much congruous with good-humored facial expressions of the musicians. Having studied European history, I could imagine how lute dynamics had been deemed necessary in the type of secular culture between the medieval and renaissance periods. It was such a momentous performance for the celebrated lute players assuredly filled with inspiration that in my entrancement brought across invisible waves of tunes in fluid rush marked by certain jest. I came snapping back to reality every time as if from subconsciously stepping onto a whole new dimension where imaginings just soared and spirits were lifted to cosmic heights. It was I suppose all about each musician’s craft with his lute that defines and sets his style apart from a traditional player no matter how rare. The ensemble can be deeply felt to possess characteristics of a native musical genius flowing or

International fashion marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

International fashion marketing - Essay Example Top shop has an international marketing department that is in charge of advertising the products in their areas of interest. I am part of the international marketing department for Top shop and our role is to make individuals aware of the products we sell, doing research on how to make more sales, identifying with the culture of the people in different countries, and using efficient advertisement means such as online operations to ensure that we reach all kinds of customers. This paper is going to discuss the benefits and cultural norms that need to be considered by Top shop when advertising in China, Japan, and United States of America. I will compare and contrast the requirements needed to establish successful markets in the three countries by discussing their cultural norms and beliefs that need to be considered when advertising different fashion commodities. The international marketing department for Top Shop is required to approach people with the respect they deserve to gain their attention. For instance, the when advertising in different countries, their cultural values and norms need to be considered in order to make them learn how to use the products and buy them. Choi (2012) stated that Chinese people have strict rules regarding their cultural values and their behavior and clothing depict their ancient traditional culture depending with the time and region. Advertising fashion products in China requires an individual to address the people with etiquette. Choi (2012) stated that family, social, and professional titles follow the name always rather than preceding it. It is discourteous to call people by their last names and first names, unless they are on familiar terms with you and when asked. The advertisers only need to use the surname followed by the title of the Chinese associates or friends when trying to introduce a product the customers. The Chinese people use handshakes as a form of

Ethical Dilemmas Essay Example for Free

Ethical Dilemmas Essay There are three situations presented in the simulation which poses different ethical dilemmas on the part of the decision-maker. The symptoms of the respective dilemmas and their root causes shall be discussed individually because â€Å"analysis would be proper if they are able to locate the root cause of the conflict† (Lee). The Indiscreet Relationship The first situation presented was an indiscreet relationship between a boss and his secretary. The boss took the secretary along with him during business trips at the expense of the company. He even promoted the secretary to junior account executive. This problem created a stir within the company and corridor talks went around saying that the way to make it through the ladder of success in the company was through less than ethical means. This has caused an unrest among the employees of the organization that an ethical stand should be taken. However, the decision-maker had an ethical dilemma in making his decision. The boss, Patrick, is his former friend and colleague who was the one instrumental in landing him his job. Patrick also helped him during his early days with the company in getting hold of the ropes of the business of the company. On the other hand, company morale is going down because the employees think he is an unethical leader for allowing Patrick have his way in maintaining an indiscreet relations with his subordinate and in spending company resources in the process. This is what defines the ethical dilemma here. Sniffdog The second situation presented by the simulation which involved an ethical dilemma is the decision to represent SilverPill and their Sniffdog account. Sniffdog is a computer program which could sneak into the users hardware and retrieve many confidential data without the users knowledge. The ethical dilemma comes in when taking the account means allowance of the intrusion of privacy while not taking the account will make the company lose a lot of money by losing the account. The fact that compounds these all is that SilverPill informed the company that they will give all their accounts to McKinley should they choose to endorse Sniffdog. The ethics rulebook of McKinley states that the employees will maintain impeachable integrity in all its business dealings. Allowing Sniffdog to push through will not reflect well of this ethical rule. On its face, the business being dealt with here is plainly business and nothing will be objectionable about it. McKinley will just seek to endorse the Sniffdog program. However, when the program has capabilities of sneaking into private information, an ethical issue arises for McKinley will be signing itself to be part of such intrusion. Although SilverPill promised not to use any information that may be gathered for any illegal or extralegal use nor to sell it to a third party, the fact alone that there will be intrusion into the private lives of the users of the program will already present a grave ethical issue. Thus, the root cause of the problem here is whether or not to be a part of a project which can intrude into the private lives of clients by collecting confidential information from them without their knowledge. Think Eddie  And the third situation with an ethical dilemma presented by the simulation is whether or not to reveal certain information about the program Sniffdog to Think Eddie which is a competitor of SilverPill. At this point, SilverPill is no longer associated with McKinley and has moved on to another PR company. Think Eddie has entered the picture and wants McKinley to represent them for a computer program which has the same features as that of SilverPills Sniffdog. Think Eddie is a big client. And now it wants information about the Sniffdog program without, however, threats of any sanctions given to McKinley in case of non-compliance. The ethical dilemma here is whether to reveal the requested information to Think Eddie or not. Though Think Eddie did not give any threats for non-disclosure, surely there was an unwritten statement accompanying the request that non-disclosure might strain the relationship between the two companies. On the other hand, the ethics rule book of McKinley prescribes them not to hold conflicting interests. SilverPill, though a former client, still has the right that every information given by it to McKinley be kept confidential by the latter. Because of the mentioned rule, McKinley is duty-bound not to divulge confidential client information, especially in this case where the revelation will be made to a competitor. The root cause of the problem, therefore, is whether or not to reveal information obtained from a former engagement in order to establish a better business relationship with a new engagement even though the two have conflicting interests and the former engagement has already been severed. In all, the ethical dilemmas arise not because of the ethics rule books established by company but mostly because of moral grounds. â€Å"If doing what is right produces something bad, or if doing what is wrong produces something good, the force of moral obligation may seem balanced by the reality of the good end. We can have the satisfaction of being right, regardless of the damage done; or we can aim for what seems to be the best outcome, regardless of what wrongs must be committed† (Ross, 2007). Thus, the root of these dilemmas is simply because there are moral standards to which, companies as well as persons, must adhere.

The Theme Of Power English Literature Essay

The Theme Of Power English Literature Essay In both Like Water for Chocolate (LWC) by Laura Esquivel and A Woman at Point Zero (WPZ) by Nawal El Saadawi, the author shapes the readers opinion on the theme of power. The theme power is presented in both of the books protagonists, Mami Elena and Firdaus. Both characters show significant feminine power throughout the book as vigorous and bold characters. Mami Elenas power is expressed through the actions she inflicts on her daughters and the capability to control each of their fates. Firdauss power is portrayed as a prostitute; using her status to manipulate mens desire to her own advantage. Woman at point zero narrates the story of Firdaus, an Eqyptian female of the 20th century, born and raised within the misery of lower class and chauvinist Muslim society. For Firdaus her mindset of power is simple: men have power and women do not. By birth, I was lower classà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ My Fatherà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. Knew very few things in lifeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦How to exchange his virgin daughter for a dowry when there was still timeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦How to bend over the headmans hand and pretend to kiss it, how to beat his wife and make her bite dust each nightà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.  [2]  El Saadawi describes Firdaus as a powerless character since birth, described as being lower class; and also a description of power represented by her father beating her mother. Because of her misfortunate cultural position, the character is persecuted by sexual harassment and constrained submission to male desire. As a result, female suffering and oppression is clearly identified by the reader throughout t he novel. Thus creating Firdaus, a prestigious prostitute, whose interaction with society is confined within the basis of male persecution, acquiring power over them. Such an appalling vision of the male gender is generated by concurring experiences of obnoxious masculine behavior. Accordingly, man is intentionally portrayed by the author as grotesque and gruesome. The phrase like water for chocolate comes from the Spanish como agua para chocolate.  [3]  This phrase is a common expression in Spanish speaking countries and was the inspiration for Laura Esquivels novel title (the name has a double-meaning). In some Latin American countries, such as Mexico, hot chocolate is made not with milk, but with water instead. Water is boiled and chunks of milk chocolate are dropped in to melt. The saying like water for chocolate, alludes to this fact and also to the common use of the expression as a metaphor for describing a state of passion or sexual arousal. In some parts of Latin America, the saying is also equivalent to being boiling mad in anger. Laura Esquivel creates Mama Elena the tyrannical, widowed matriarch of the De La Garza clan revolves around the subjugation of her daughters. Her fierce dominion over her three daughters inspires fear within all of them. All my life I have been searching for something that would fill me with pride, make me feel superior to everyone else, including kings, princes and rulers  [4]  This quote refers to how Firdaus discovers how vulnerable men are when a prostitute refuses to sleep with them. With the status of prostitution she is overwhelmed with power and feels in complete control. Men will explode in fear and offer larger sums of money simply because they feel as if they are losing their power over women; however they do not realize it is the prostitute gaining power. When she possesses money of her own, she has power over people who slander her, and can give herself a respectable name. Her mindset was only changed until she met a high class prostitute named Sharifa. Sharifa is portrayed as a wealthy high class prostitute who manipulates mens desire for sex to her own advantage. She acts as a teacher to Firdaus, teaching her how to use her physical appearances as a tool to attract men. This is whe re her power had originated from; the teaching from Sharifa. Soon after she notices Sharifa treats her as a tool, she runs away to be an independent prostitute and applies to skills she had obtained. As Sharifa states; She is free to do what she wants, and free not to do it.  [5]  Firdaus is able to do anything she wants, after being handed tips, and lessons by Sharifa she is able to take her prostitution status to a whole new level. The method Mama Elena uses to gain control over her daughters is by using violence and cruelty against them, whether psychological or physical . Obey your Mommy and Dadd.  [6]  This quote refers to how the daughters of Mama Elena have no choice but to obey Mama Elena, since their father had passed away before. Mama Elena already starts with power unlike Firdaus who has slowly to gain her power. If she couldnt marry, was she at least allowed to experience love? Or not even that?  [7]  Tita being the youngest daughter of hers is unable to marry or have children because of the ridiculous tradition. Whatever signs of love Mama Elena sensed inside of Tita she would try to disrupt and sabotage. This root of her evil is from her previous lover who had left her, if she senses one of her daughters loving someone else she will feel overpowered and powerless. After Tita meets Pedro Mama Elena sees his affection for Tita so she conjures a plot against Tita; thus introducing Rosaura to Pe dro. Soon after Pedro decides to marry Rosaura to get closer to Tita because he realizes her fate is sealed. Tita does not know of Pedros intentions and is mentally hurt by losing her only chance of gaining true love. She suffers harshly and spends a lot of her time weeping about this incident. If Mama Elena suspects the slightest idea that Tita has no fulfilled her duties, such as when she is suspected of messing up the sewing on the wedding present, or the poison put inside the wedding cake, she physically abuses her. She is beaten harshly and is always left with scars, bruises and injuries: this teaches the daughters that not to make the same mistake again and displays the extreme power Mama Elena holds over them. When Tita attempts to blames Mami Elena for Robertos death she picks up a wooden spoon and breaks Titas nose leaving her no medical care and to slowly endure the pain. Mama Elena was merciless, killing with a single blow. But then again, not always. For Tita she had mad e an exception; she had been killing her a little at a time since she was a child, and she still hadnt finished her off.  [8]   Nacha! Dont say that. As my youngest daughter, Tita will care for me until the day I die. She wont marry.  [9]  The reason for her absurd vision of Duty and Responsibility is so that Mami Elena is able to gain full control over her daughters and not lose power. Eventually when Rosaura gives birth to Espranza Rosaura imposes the same fate on her daughter. Esquivel introduces the baby to show that even though Mami Elena had died Rosaura had still kept to the tradition even after all the treacherous things she had inflicted upon Rosaura. It shows how Mami Elena had polluted the mind of Rosaura and how her power even though she was dead overruled Rosauras self conscience I now knew that all of us were prostitutes who sold themselves at varying prices, and that an expensive prostitute was better than a cheap one.  [10]  As a prostitute Firdaus uses her power to command higher and higher prices simply by denying men of their wants. She was able to control the prices for her service showing her power over men. Men would crave for her; Firdaus would use this to her advantage to make them suffer. As she becomes powerful and notorious as prostitute money starts piling in for her. She gets this mind sense that as you have more money you also get more powerful which she had learnt from Sharifa. When the pimp comes into the picture, Firdaus sees him as a threat blocking her uprising. The pimp threatens to defame her or kill her, proving that no matter how much she had, Firdaus was still vulnerable to men because she had something to lose. Both Esquivel and El Saadawi present the theme of power effectively through the characters, Mama Elena and Firdaus using a variety of techniques. Like water for chocolate and Woman at point zero, with its blatantly sexist narrator are two novels written by two different female writers in totally different cultural circumstances; Esquivel being raised in Mexico, and El Saadawi being raised in Egypt. The reader therefore inevitably obtains a different level of insight of the protagonists however the theme of power still conforms with similarities between them. However no one can deny that both texts provide a fascinating view of the complexities and confusions of power. By Timothy Lui

Portfolios To Assess Professional Competence And Development Nursing Essay

Portfolios To Assess Professional Competence And Development Nursing Essay Portfolios have been recommended for the assessment of professional development. To stimulate engagement and assess professional development during laboratory training, portfolio assessment was proposed for the final year BMLS and DMLT programmes in Kampala International University. Work Done The students undergoing clinical laboratory training in teaching hospitals, and engaged in routine laboratory services under supervision of qualified Medical Laboratory Scientists, composed a portfolio detailing their daily experiences, work done, and lessons learned. Their supervisors and facilitators provided daily feedback and endorsed their entries. The portfolios were examined at the end of training by faculty staff and external examiner through oral presentation and interviews. Rating rubric considered quality of presentation, portfolio content, demonstration of progressive development, and ability to make professional judgment. Students and assessors acceptance of this instrument was determined with questionnaire. Results 72 % of the students and assessors accepted the method. Many students reported that it improved commitment to training, encouraged reflection, and allowed for frequent feedback. Many believed that it was a rational assessment, but it was time consuming. 88 % of the participants would welcome it as a supplement to the standard tests. Conclusions The portfolio assessment was well accepted, rational, and provided a valid assessment of student engagement and progression during professional training. Take Home Message The inclusion of portfolio assessment in Medical Laboratory Sciences Education provided valid assessment of students engagement in training and professional development over time. Introduction The use of portfolios in health professions education has increased dramatically over the years. The enthusiastic acceptance of this principle is in part born out of the ever growing interest in outcomes based education in all divisions of health science.1 The curricula of most health sciences schools now emphasize authentic experiences, promote self direction and reflection in learning, and outcomes based assessment. Portfolios not only stimulate professional development and reflective learning, they also provide opportunity for self direction, and avenues for feedback from faculty.2, 3 Portfolios have been recommended for the assessment of professional development in medical education,4 and several reports document their successful use in assessment of competence at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.5,6 To stimulate engagement and to assess professional development during clinical laboratory training, portfolio development and assessment was proposed for the final year Bac helor of Medical Laboratory Sciences and the Diploma in Medical Laboratory Technology students of the Kampala International University, Uganda in 2008. This article reports the experience of the use of portfolios to assess professional development in these programmes. Methods Institutional approval for the study was obtained from the IREC. Eighteen final year students who were undergoing clinical laboratory training in the teaching hospitals at the Kampala International University Teaching Hospital Ishaka and the Mulago Hospital in Kampala and participating in routine daily laboratory work were requested to compose and maintain a portfolio comprising details of their daily experiences, work done and lessons learnt during their training. Their supervisors and programme facilitators provided daily feedback on their work and endorsed all entries. At the end of their clinical laboratory training, the portfolios were examined by the four faculty staff and an external examiner. The students were also required to make a 15 minutes presentation based on the portfolio content, and take interview on lessons learned and overall impact of the training on their development. A rating rubric used for the assessment considered the quality of students presentation, portfo lio content, demonstration of students progressive development over time, and their ability to make professional judgment. Questionnaires were used to determine the students and raters views on the acceptability, convenience, and usefulness of this method of assessment. The data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Table 1: Rubric for the assessment of the students portfolios Standard met Standard not met 1 Presentation was complete in 15 minutes 2 Quality of presentation 3 Student showed progressive development over time 4 Student reflected on experiences and could make good professional judgment 5 Portfolio content was adequate 6 Overall assessment Pass Fail General comments: Results The result showed that seventy two per cent (72 %) of the students and assessors accepted the method as a valid and effective means of assessing professional competence. Many students (15 of the 18) reported that it improved their commitment to the laboratory training, and encouraged them to reflect on their daily experiences. Both faculty and students reported that it allowed for frequent feedback and more engagement in the programme. Many believed that it was a rational assessment as it captured development over time, but it was time consuming and quite tasking on both students and staff. Eighty eight per cent (88 %) were of the view that it should be a supplement and not a substitute for the standard written and practical tests. Discussion The evolution of portfolio as a tool for the assessment of professional competence and development offers several advantages over the traditional standard tests which to a large extent are reductionist and do not capture progression over time. Application of portfolio assessment in Medical Laboratory Sciences education is not widespread and only few reports are available in literature.7 This study demonstrated that portfolio development and assessment is well accepted by both staff and students in the medical laboratory sciences programme of the Kampala International University. An important aspect of medical education is the matching of assessment methods with learning mode, as assessment drives learning. Portfolio assessment aligns well with competency based education whose tenets include learner centeredness, formative feedback, developmental process, reflection, and multiple types and sources of assessment.3 This study demonstrated this clearly as it promoted student /staff engag ement in the clinical laboratory training programme, students ownership of their training, and reflective learning which are some of the advantages highlighted by similar previous reports of the use of portfolio in other programmes.8, 9 The study also showed that many of the study participants would not welcome this form of assessment as the only mode of student assessment. Rather it would be a valuable addition to the traditional methods of assessment of competence. The limitations of this study include the small sample size used for the study. It is recommended that a larger sample of students be included in a more elaborate study possibly over a longer study period. To ease the burden of assessment, using structured interview to assess the portfolio as recommended by Burch and Seggie 10 could be helpful. Conclusion: The use of portfolios to assess students progress and professional competence in Medical Laboratory Sciences is a welcome proposition. It should be used to supplement the standard written and practical tests. Its advantages include stimulation of student engagement, self direction, reflective learning, and monitoring of progress over time. It is however seen to be time consuming for the students. Its introduction extends the methods of assessment in Medical Laboratory Sciences.

Sir Gawain and Green Knight Essays: Allegory :: Sir Gawain Green Knight Essays

Allegory in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight  Ã‚   Discuss the allegorical significance of the following words of the Green Knight,   You are so fully confessed, your failings made known,/ And bear the plain penance of the point of my blade,/ I hold you polished as a pearl, as pure and as bright/ As you had lived free of fault since first you were born  . These words are uttered by the Green Knight almost immediately after he delivered the third blow on Gawain  s neck (l 2391-2394). They should be understood as referring to events which began with Gawain  s arrival at the Lord  s castle. The words   confessed   and   penance   appearing in the Green Knight  s utterance may lead one to connect them not only with events of the narrative, but also with the Christian idea of sin. According to Christian ideology all human beings are sinners, though- owing to God  s grace and kindness- sins may be forgiven. But before this happens there is need for confession and penance. Absolution is the final stage which may be reached only by those who pass the former ones. When Sir Gawain is looked at closely, the events of the story correspond to the sequence: temptation -sin - confession - penance - absolution. The sin committed by Gawain was not being loyal to the lord by concealing the green girdle. This weakness of character resulted from the love of life - the girdle was to protect anyone who wore it. What happens at the Green Chapel are the later parts of the cycle: confession - penance - absolution. The penance is the fight with the Green Knight during which Gawain receives a cut on the neck and absolution (granted by the Green Knight) is attained through blood, which makes it even more meaningful. On the other hand, a nick on the neck is not an extremely painful experience (although the way in which it was attained was definitely very stressful) and shows that Gawain  s sin was only a minor one. He did not sin against chastity as he did not give in to the lady  s wishes. But still, in this interpretation Gawain  s character turned out to be faulty. There is a different possibility of interpretation - one which broadens the allegory even more. It may be said that Gawain  s primary fault was sinning against courtesy. If courtesy was in reality what he had been tested on, Gawain did not stand a chance of passing this test.

SWOT, PEST, Product Lifecycle, Boston Matrix and the Ansoff Matrix: Mar

SWOT, PEST, Product Lifecycle, Boston Matrix and the Ansoff Matrix: Marketing Models Analysis Marketing strategies/models In this objective I will be analysing the different marketing models and evaluating their reliability. The marketing models I will evaluate will be SWOT and PEST analysis, the product life cycle, the Boston Matrix and the Ansoff Matrix. SWOT and PEST analysis In the previous objective, I analysed SWOT and PEST of Cadbury. These enabled me to gain insight into the external and internal influences that may arise which may either be beneficial or cause problems for the launch of my product. Product life cycle The product life cycle shows the sales of a product over time. To be able to market a product, Cadbury must be aware of the product life cycle of its products. The cycle can be demonstrated as below: Introduction Following planning and development, the product is introduced onto the market. This stage includes characteristics such as: Low initial sales, due to limited knowledge and no consumer loyalty Heavy promotion to build brand image and consumer confidence Losses (low profits at best) due to heavy development and promotion costs Limited distribution levels, but high stockholding for the manufacturer Growth At this stage, consumer knowledge and loyalty has grown, and the company increases sales and begins to make profits. There may be a growing number of competitors who may introduce similar products or adapt their price and promotion policies. Maturity The maturity phase is where the profits and sales reach their peak. Profits are being maximised, but the firm has to fight to defend its market position. Sales are maintained by promotion, customer loyalty and product differentiation through alternations such as new packaging. At the end of this stage, the market becomes saturated. Decline This stage is where total sales fall for the company. To make up for this, the company may reduce prices, cutting into its profit margin. This is the end of the product and its life cycle. The table below shows examples of where some of Cadbury’s products lie in the product life cycle. Stage Example Introduction Snaps Growth Under 99 calorie range (Dairy milk) Maturity Dairy Milk, Twirl, Flake Decline Fuse The table shows that most of Cadburys products ... ... to get new people to try the product and existing customers to buy more. The company should therefore use market expansion. In the decline stage, the company should try to re-launch the product, which would be using product or market expansion. Market penetration could be used if a successful product was being re-launched to increase the company’s market share, but this would not work if the product were a dog. The marketing models can be influenced other factors and research. Cadbury’s competitors may affect the company’s use of the Ansoff Matrix. The model is used to analyse the strategic direction of a product, and if a product was placed in the market expansion, which has medium risk strategy, and competitors also released a similar product in this section, there will be a higher risk strategy, which will affect the product’s performance and position in both the Boston matrix and the product life cycle. My questionnaire told me there was a gap in the market for my product, and my SWOT analysis reinforced this. This then tells me that my product should do well as a question mark, in the introduction stage of the product life cycle and as product expansion. SWOT, PEST, Product Lifecycle, Boston Matrix and the Ansoff Matrix: Mar SWOT, PEST, Product Lifecycle, Boston Matrix and the Ansoff Matrix: Marketing Models Analysis Marketing strategies/models In this objective I will be analysing the different marketing models and evaluating their reliability. The marketing models I will evaluate will be SWOT and PEST analysis, the product life cycle, the Boston Matrix and the Ansoff Matrix. SWOT and PEST analysis In the previous objective, I analysed SWOT and PEST of Cadbury. These enabled me to gain insight into the external and internal influences that may arise which may either be beneficial or cause problems for the launch of my product. Product life cycle The product life cycle shows the sales of a product over time. To be able to market a product, Cadbury must be aware of the product life cycle of its products. The cycle can be demonstrated as below: Introduction Following planning and development, the product is introduced onto the market. This stage includes characteristics such as: Low initial sales, due to limited knowledge and no consumer loyalty Heavy promotion to build brand image and consumer confidence Losses (low profits at best) due to heavy development and promotion costs Limited distribution levels, but high stockholding for the manufacturer Growth At this stage, consumer knowledge and loyalty has grown, and the company increases sales and begins to make profits. There may be a growing number of competitors who may introduce similar products or adapt their price and promotion policies. Maturity The maturity phase is where the profits and sales reach their peak. Profits are being maximised, but the firm has to fight to defend its market position. Sales are maintained by promotion, customer loyalty and product differentiation through alternations such as new packaging. At the end of this stage, the market becomes saturated. Decline This stage is where total sales fall for the company. To make up for this, the company may reduce prices, cutting into its profit margin. This is the end of the product and its life cycle. The table below shows examples of where some of Cadbury’s products lie in the product life cycle. Stage Example Introduction Snaps Growth Under 99 calorie range (Dairy milk) Maturity Dairy Milk, Twirl, Flake Decline Fuse The table shows that most of Cadburys products ... ... to get new people to try the product and existing customers to buy more. The company should therefore use market expansion. In the decline stage, the company should try to re-launch the product, which would be using product or market expansion. Market penetration could be used if a successful product was being re-launched to increase the company’s market share, but this would not work if the product were a dog. The marketing models can be influenced other factors and research. Cadbury’s competitors may affect the company’s use of the Ansoff Matrix. The model is used to analyse the strategic direction of a product, and if a product was placed in the market expansion, which has medium risk strategy, and competitors also released a similar product in this section, there will be a higher risk strategy, which will affect the product’s performance and position in both the Boston matrix and the product life cycle. My questionnaire told me there was a gap in the market for my product, and my SWOT analysis reinforced this. This then tells me that my product should do well as a question mark, in the introduction stage of the product life cycle and as product expansion.

Cultural Brokers in Colonial America

During the settlement of North America there were many people who crossed cultural borders becoming cultural brokers. Three such people were Isabel Montour, Samson Occom and Susannah Johnson. These three possessed strong language skills or the ability to learn new languages quickly, this was perhaps the most important skill needed to cross cultural borders and communicate with â€Å"outsiders. † Another necessary skill was a complete understanding of their culture and the cultures of other groups. This skill was used to convey traditional customs, political protocol, and to avoid any misunderstandings between the people of the each culture.The cultural broker would also have an agreeable disposition. Likeability and the ability to get along well with most people would be an asset in a cultural broker. Intelligence and diplomacy were also attributes necessary for the success of a cultural broker. I believe the cultural broker would have to be able to take rejection because of t he possibility of those in their culture ostracizing them for their association with the â€Å"other† culture. A combination of these skills would allow a person to move easily from one culture to another and sometimes have a foot in both at the same time.Isabel Montour was born in Canada to a French father and Abenaki mother. She was about ten years of age when warriors of the Five Nations of Indians raided her village during war with the Canadians and took her captive. The Iroquois Indians adopted her and she was raised as one of their children. Upon maturity she married an Oneida war captain named Carondawana. In 1711, New York Governor Robert Hunter enlisted Madame Montour’s assistance regarding negotiations with the Iroquois. Governor Hunter would make her a central figure in Indian negotiations in New York. He considered her to be one of his â€Å"most trusted advisers. Her duties included acting as interpreter at conferences, and helping to write speeches to be delivered. Another aspect of her work involved relaying messages and explaining the expectations and mannerisms of the Indians to the colonists. Through her work she aided the colonists’ in their quest to understand the culture of the Iroquois. She had great knowledge of the customs, ideas and the language of the Iroquois. Her ability to fluently speak English, French, Oneida, Mohawk, Delaware, and possibly Huron and Miami along with her many relatives located throughout Canada and the Great Lakes region identified er as a person â€Å"in the know† about the issues facing both cultures for the majority of her life. She was â€Å"trustworthy, and unafraid to tell the truth†. In the 1720s her family moved to Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna River Valley to live in an Indian community. Here she also served as interpreter for the colonists’ in negotiations with the Iroquois. As in New York she was known for her knowledge and often asked for her advice regar ding Indians affairs. In 1729, while on his way home from war with the Catawba Indians, her husband, Carondawana was killed.After his death she focused her attention on teaching her son Andrew the skills necessary to be a successful diplomat and cultural broker. Madame Montour had no real memory of her birth culture. Because of her mixed heritage she could blend in with many cultures by emphasizing or de-emphasizing certain aspects of her background. Madame Montour moved easily between the cultures of the Indians and the colonists. She was very adaptable. This was probably derived from her early capture and assimilation into the Iroquois culture.Despite having family among Iroquois and supporters among the white settlers at times it seems she did not quite belong to any specific group. Even after being adopted by the Iroquois they still referred to her as the French woman who was married to an Indian. It seems Madame Montour was a woman of many cultures but also a woman with no true culture of her own maybe that is why she was successful as a cultural broker. Madame Montour both gained and lost by crossing cultures. She gained the respect of government officials in the colonies beginning with Governor Hunter of New York.Her work as an interpreter and assistance in the understanding of the Iroquois provided financial resources for her and her family. She also gained a well-deserved reputation as an important person who was well versed in the manners, customs, and languages of the Indians. Due to her own cultural brokerage she trained her son Andrew Montour to be a cultural broker providing him with a career. Madame Montour also lost as a result of her cultural brokerage. Her mixed heritage set her apart and her association with the colonists caused ill will among some of the Natives.Although she was respected among the colonists and Indians alike, this did not necessarily â€Å"translate into acceptance† among either group. After the death of her husband even the Oneida community â€Å"began to marginalize her family† and she moved around frequently alone or with her son. She received little â€Å"in the way of reward from the white colonial or Indian societies whom she served†. Madame Montour was used by both the colonists and the Indians. The colonists respected her and actively sought the knowledge she held regarding the Indians but as soon as she was no longer needed she was cast aside and forgotten until they needed her again.An Oneida headman Shickellamy used Madame Montour’s contacts and influences to grow his status as a representative of the Iroquois Confederacy. Then he and a Seneca headman accused her of being untruthful and ended her public career. â€Å"She never again appeared at a conference in any recognized capacity. † Madame Montour used her fluency of language; her family connections and knowledge of Native customs to help the colonists’ come to understand the Natives. Like Mada me Montour, Samson Occom was a cultural broker but he used a different path to achieve his brokerage.Samson Occom was Mohegan by birth. During the â€Å"Great Awakening† he converted to Christianity. Tutored by Reverend Eleazar Wheelock he learned to read and write in English. Additionally, he learned Latin, Greek, some Hebrew, Oneida, and Mohawk. Occom became an ordained minister. He used the path of â€Å"Reformed Protestantism, namely, Congregationalism and Presbyterianism† to cross cultural borders. He built a two story frame house in Mohegan where his family lived for twenty-five years. To his people and the English the house represented his moving from his birth culture to the English culture.Wheelock asked Occom to travel to Britain to raise funds for Dartmouth College which he said would be used to educate Native youth. In Britain Occom was somewhat of a celebrity and preached to the people there and in Scotland. Upon his return to North America Occom learned W heelock had deceived him regarding Dartmouth College. The target students were to be young English men. Occom had made the trip to Britain because he believed Native youth would make up the majority of the students. Occom never traveled to Dartmouth College and severed his ties with Wheelock.After a period of depression Occom gained a â€Å"renewed sense of self-worth† as a sermon he had delivered was published as a temperance tract. While in Britain Occom had collected hymnals and in 1772 he published a book of his favorite hymns. Later his knowledge of English law and his recordkeeping would enable the Mohegan to retain land in the community he started called Brothertown. When Occom died Mohegan, Iroquois, and Algonquian Indians attended his funeral which was preached by an Englishman/American and was held in Brothertown.The many different cultures present reflected his experience as a cultural broker but the place his funeral was held said even more: â€Å"Samson Occom ha d come home. † Occom adjusted well to the English culture in the beginning. It could be said he even preferred the English culture over his own. But Occom never forgot about his people as to do so would have been irresponsible. Occom was well received in Britain where he was considered â€Å"a unique attraction. † In Scotland he was a living example of the success of their â€Å"commitment to education and conversion† important because they funded Wheelock’s ventures.Occom became less enchanted by the Europeans when he discovered Wheelock had deceived him about Dartmouth College. He decided that his faith was the only good thing to be taken from the English culture and severed ties with Wheelock and the English culture. This was a reverse of his early years when he had offended the Oneida by telling them to â€Å"to grow their hair long as the English do and not to wear wampum or other such things† which suggested he agreed with the concept of confo rmity. Occom gained the ability to read and write by crossing cultural borders.Additionally he gained his lifelong faith in God through Protestant Religion. He became an ordained minister and used his preaching to help his culture. Occom learned the English laws regarding property ownership which eventually led to his people keeping the lands among the Oneida. He gained recognition through publication of one of his sermons and his popular book of hymns. In contrast he lost a part of his own culture for a brief time at the beginning of his association with the English. His knowledge of the English ways also â€Å"created a bone of contention with the splintered loyalties of the Mohegan tribe. Occom sacrificed time away from his wife due to his service to the English and Wheelock. Eventually the English culture lost appeal to Occom due to their abuse of his trust and confrontations of â€Å"English antagonism. † Occom was used by several people. The Boston Board used him to pr ove a Native could be used as an educator and cheap labor at the same time. Wheelock used him to obtain funds to create Dartmouth College and to prove his ability to convert and educate the Native people showing he was worthy of the donations he had received.Even though he eventually withdrew from the English culture Samson Occom achieved many things during his time as a cultural broker just as those before and after him. Roughly the same time as Occom was using his religious faith to cross cultures another person, Susannah Johnson, was pursuing cultural brokerage through another path. Susannah Johnson was a cultural broker. Her ability to adapt to any environment and â€Å"attract and remember the kindness of others† was the main path of her brokerage. Susannah’s empathy for those in her culture and other cultures helped her cross cultural borders.Through the telling of her and her family’s trials as captives of the Abenaki Indians she helped challenge many ide as about the Indians that were not always true. Susannah was born on the Massachusetts frontier to Moses and Susannah Willard. She married and her husband and family lived on the New Hampshire frontier in Charlestown. On August 30, 1752, a group of Abenaki Indians raided their house and took her captive along with her husband, their three children, her sister, kinsman Ebenezer Farnsworth and a friend Peter Labarree.She was pregnant at the time and on the second day of their captivity she went in to labor and delivered a baby girl she named Captive. Susannah considered the Abenaki to be â€Å"by no means void of compassion† as they helped her to deliver, clothed the baby and provided shelter for mother and baby. Additionally the Abenaki built a litter to carry Susannah and baby Captive but the other captives tired after a couple of miles and she was offered a horse to ride which she accepted for fear of being left behind in the wilderness with a newborn. Susannah spoke of how the Abenaki showed mercy to her family and the other captives.Susannah also spoke of the Abenaki modesty. Upon being sold to Governor Ange Duquesne de Menneville, Marquis Duquesne, in Montreal Captive became ill and Susannah allowed her to be baptized a Roman Catholic and named the governor as her godfather. As Susannah was a Puritan this was a huge leap into another culture. Her husband James raised the money for his release and was allowed to return to New Hampshire to obtain the money to pay the ransom for Susannah and their children. Due to Massachusetts preparing to expeditions against Acadia and Fort St. Frederic James was not allowed to return to Canada.When James did not return to Montreal Susannah and her two youngest daughters and her sister were cast out of Canadian society and made a living as seamstresses. When he finally returned to Montreal due to the escalation of war, James was considered a parole violator and posed a risk to military intelligence. Later, Susannah, James and the two youngest daughters were sent to Quebec to a criminal prison where conditions were poor and disease rampant. Intendant Francois Bigot used his influence to allow the Johnsons to be moved to a civilian prison where conditions were more comfortable.There the family had a garden and Susannah was allowed to travel to town weekly to buy necessary goods. While in prison she gave birth to a stillborn son and learned her father had been killed by the Abenaki during another raid. Her baby girl Captive spoke only French and Susannah learned enough to understand her daughter. The Johnsons were given permission to go home via England but at the last minute they said her husband James could not go but she and all but her son still with the Abenaki and her daughter in Montreal went on the boat alone.She arrived home after being gone for three years three months and eleven days. † James having been released arrived home about the same time. Susannah’s son Sylvanus was redeemed from the Abenaki but could only speak their language and broken French. Her oldest daughter finally arrived home after six years in Montreal. Susannah’s family had become a â€Å"mixture of nations. † In later years she loved telling about her adventures which she saw as â€Å"an instructive tale of suffering and redemption. † She always credited the Abenaki with kindness. Susannah had some difficulty adjusting to life with the Abenaki.She was not very good at canoe making and agreed with their adoptive sister’s occasional complaints that she was â€Å"a no good squaw. † Susannah adapted better to life in Canada in Governor Duquesne’s house. She met many other captives there and found the people kind and she was treated like a daughter. Even after being cast out of Canadian society she survived by working as a seamstress. She never did adapt to the criminal prison but in the civilian prison she made do with the little she had. Duri ng weekly outings she met other captives and had conversations with them.During her captivity Susannah met many people who were kind to her and her family. She never forgot that kindness and persevered until she was once again home. As a cultural broker Susannah gained knowledge of Native culture and personal insight into their lives. She became aware the Natives were capable of kindness and were a good moral people. She always believed the Abenaki were nicer to her family than the English would have been to a Native family had the situation been reversed. She found their community very favorable. Susannah further related surprise that the Abenaki adopted her as a sister and treated her as one of their own.Although Susannah gained as a cultural broker she also experienced loss. She had a stillborn son and lost a son to the Abenaki. She later regained this son but he always considered himself an Abenaki. The six years her oldest daughter spent in Montreal were lost to her. One positi ve loss she experienced was her loss of fear over time. Susannah was used by the Indians as trade to the Canadians. She was also used by the Canadians as a prisoner to be bargained for political reasons. The three biographies relate much about intertribal relations and interaction between the Europeans and Natives. Inter-tribal relations were not always positive.The tribes were many times split between loyalties to different cultures. They often looked upon cultural brokers as outsiders or a kind of traitor. There were also good things about tribal relations shown by Occom who never forgot his people. He became a cultural broker more for the benefit of his people than himself. The Indians were usually loyal to one another and treated most captives as family members. The interaction between English and Natives was usually strained. Neither group knew what to expect from the other or understood the other culture. The English were far worse in their treatment of the Natives.They were g enerally unfair and untruthful. They used the Natives far more than the reverse. They considered them backward and perceived them as stereotypical savages. When captured Susannah was surprised to be treated as well as she was for she knew the English would treat their captives far worse. Madame Montour, Samson Occom, and Susannah Johnson were all successful cultural brokers. Cultural brokers played a large role in the colonization of the United States. Although they used different methods to cross cultural borders the intent was universal. They strived to bring understanding to both their culture and the culture of the English.