A Dirty Job Chapter 15

15 THE CALL OF BOOTY Fuck puppets,† Ray said out of nowhere. He was on the stair-climbing machine next to Charlie and they were both sweating and staring at a row of six, perfectly tuned female bottoms aimed at them from the machines in front of them. â€Å"What was that?† Charlie said. â€Å"Fuck puppets,† Ray said. â€Å"That's what they are.† Ray had talked Charlie into coming to his health club with him under the pretense of getting him into the flow of being single. Actually, because Ray was an ex-cop, watched people more closely than really was healthy, had too much time on his hands, and didn't get out much himself, the real reason he asked Charlie to come work out with him was so he could get to know him outside of the shop. He'd noticed a strange pattern that had developed since Rachel's death, of Charlie showing up with people's property shortly after their obituary appeared in the paper. Because Charlie kept to himself socially and was secretive about what he did when he was out of the shop, not to mention all the little animals that ended up dead in Charlie's apartment, Ray suspected that he might be a serial killer. Ray decided to try to get close to his boss and find out for sure. â€Å"Keep your voice down, Ray,† Charlie said. â€Å"Jeez.† Since Ray couldn't turn his head, he was talking right at the women's butts. â€Å"They can't hear me; look, every single one has on a headset.† He was right, every one of them was talking on a cell phone. â€Å"You and I are invisible to them.† Having actually been invisible to people, or nearly so, Charlie did a double take. It was midmorning and the gym was full of lean spandex-clad women in their twenties with disproportionately large breasts, perfect skin, and expensive hair, who seemed to have the ability to look right through him the way that everyone did when he was in pursuit of a soul vessel. In fact, when he and Ray had first come into the gym, Charlie had actually looked around for some object, pulsing red, thinking that he might have missed a name on his date book that morning. â€Å"After I was shot I dated a physical therapist that worked here for a while,† Ray said. â€Å"She called them that: fuck puppets. Every one of them has an apartment that some older executive guy is paying for – just like he paid for the health-club membership and the fake tits. They spend their days getting facials and manicures, and their nights under some suit out of his suit.† Charlie was wildly uncomfortable with Ray's litany, talking about these women who were only a couple of feet away. Like any Beta Male, he would have been wildly uncomfortable in the presence of so many beautiful women anyway, but this made it worse. â€Å"So like they're like trophy wives?† Charlie said. â€Å"Nuh-uh, like wannabe trophy wives. They don't get the guy, the house, whatever. They just exist to be his perfect piece of ass.† â€Å"Fuck puppets?† Charlie said. â€Å"Fuck puppets,† said Ray. â€Å"But forget them, they're not why you're here.† Ray was right, of course. They weren't why Charlie was there. Five years had passed since Rachel's death, and everyone had been telling him he needed to get back in the game, but that's not why he agreed to accompany the ex-cop to the gym. Because Charlie spent too much time on his own, especially since Sophie had started school, and because he'd been hiding a secret identity and avocation, he'd started to suspect that everyone might have one. And since Ray kept to himself, talked a lot about people in the neighborhood who had died, and because he really didn't seem to have a social life beyond the Filipino women he contacted online, Charlie suspected Ray might be a serial killer. Charlie thought he'd try to get closer to Ray and find out. â€Å"So they're like mistresses?† Charlie said. â€Å"Like in Europe?† â€Å"I suppose,† Ray said. â€Å"But did you ever get the impression that mistresses worked this hard to look good? I think fuck puppet is more accurate, because when they get too old to hold the attention of their guy, they've got nothing more going. They'll be done, like marionettes with no one at the strings.† â€Å"Jeez, Ray, that's harsh.† Maybe Ray is stalking one of these women, Charlie thought. Ray shrugged. Charlie looked up and down the line of perfect derrieres, then felt the weight of his years alone or in the company of a child and two giant dogs, and said, â€Å"I want a fuck puppet.† Aha! thought Ray. He's picking a victim. â€Å"Me, too,† he said. â€Å"But guys like us don't get fuck puppets, Charlie. We just get ignored by them.† Aha! Charlie thought. The bitter sociopath comes out. â€Å"So that's why you brought me here, so I could show I was out of shape in front of gorgeous women who wouldn't notice?† â€Å"No, the fuck puppets are fun to look at, but there's some normal women who come here, too.† Who won't talk to me either, Ray thought. â€Å"Who won't talk to you either,† Charlie said. Because they can tell that you are a psychokiller. â€Å"We'll see in the juice bar after our workout,† Ray said. Where I'll sit at an angle so I can watch you pick your victim. You sick fuck, they thought. Charlie awoke to find not one, but three new names in his date book, and the last one, a Madison McKerny, had only three days for him to retrieve her soul vessel. Charlie kept a stack of newspapers in the house and, typically, would go back for a month looking for an obituary of his new client. More often, if the hellhounds would give him some peace, he would simply wait for the name to appear in the obituary section, then go find the soul vessel when it was easy to get into the house, with mourners or posing as an estate buyer. But this time he had only three days, and Madison McKerny hadn't appeared in the obituaries, so that meant she was probably still alive, and he couldn't find her in the phone book either, so he was going to need to get moving quickly. Mrs. Ling and Mrs. Korjev liked to do their marketing on Saturdays, so he called his sister, Jane, and asked her to come watch Sophie. â€Å"I want a baby brother,† Sophie announced to her Auntie Jane. â€Å"Oh, sweetie, I'm sorry, you can't have a baby brother, because that would mean that Daddy had sex, and that's never going to happen again.† â€Å"Jane, don't talk to her that way,† Charlie said. He was making sandwiches for them and wondering why he always got stuck making the sandwiches. To Sophie, he said, â€Å"Honey, why don't you go in your room and play with Alvin and Mohammed, Daddy needs to talk with Auntie Jane.† â€Å"Okay,† Sophie said, skipping off to her room. â€Å"And don't change clothes again, those are fine,† Charlie said. â€Å"That's the fourth outfit she's had on today,† he said to Jane. â€Å"She changes clothes like you change girlfriends.† â€Å"Ouch. Be gentle, Chuck, I'm sensitive and I can still kick your ass.† Charlie spanked some mayonnaise onto a whole wheat slice to show he was serious. â€Å"Jane, I'm not sure it's healthy for her to have all these different aunties around. She's already had a hard time losing her mother, and now you've moved away – I just don't think she should keep getting attached to these women only to have them yanked out of her life. She needs a consistent female influence.† â€Å"First, I have not moved away, I've moved across town, and I see her every bit as often as when I lived in the building. Second, it's not like I'm promiscuous, I'm just shitty at relationships. Third, Cassie and I have been together for three months, and we're doing fine so far, which is why I've moved out. And fourth, Sophie did not lose her mother, she never had her mother, she had you, and if you're going to be a decent human being, you need to get laid.† â€Å"That's what I mean, you can't talk like that in front of Sophie.† â€Å"Charlie, it's true! Even Sophie can see it. She doesn't even know what it is and she can tell that you're not getting any.† Charlie stopped constructing sandwiches and came over to the counter. â€Å"It's not sex, Jane. It's human contact. I was getting my hair cut the other day and the hairdresser's breast rubbed against my shoulder and I almost came. Then I almost cried.† â€Å"Sounds like sex to me, little brother. Have you been with anyone since Rachel died?† â€Å"You know I haven't.† â€Å"That's wrong. Rachel wouldn't want that for you. You have to know that. I mean she took pity on you and hooked up with you, and that couldn't have been easy for her, knowing she could do so much better.† â€Å"Took pity on me?† â€Å"That's what I'm saying. She was a sweet woman, and you're much more pitiful now than you were then. You had more hair then, and you didn't have a kid and two dogs the size of Volvos. Hell, there's probably some order of nuns that would do you now, just as a holy act of mercy. Or penance.† â€Å"Stop it, Jane.† â€Å"The Sisters of Perpetual Nookiless Suffering.† â€Å"I'm not that bad,† Charlie said. â€Å"The Holy Order of Saint Bonny of the BJ, patron saint of Web porn and incurable wankers.† â€Å"Okay, Jane, I'm sorry I said that about you changing girlfriends. I was out of line.† Jane leaned back on her bar stool and crossed her arms, looking satisfied but skeptical. â€Å"But the problem remains.† â€Å"I'm fine. I have Sophie and I have the business, I don't need a girlfriend.† â€Å"A girlfriend? A girlfriend is too ambitious for you. You just need someone to have sex with.† â€Å"I do not.† â€Å"Yes, you do.† â€Å"Yes, I do,† Charlie said, defeated. â€Å"But I have to go. Are you okay to watch Sophie?† â€Å"Sure, I'm going to take her to my place. I have an obnoxious neighbor up the street that I'd like to introduce to the puppies. Will they poop on command?† â€Å"They will if Sophie tells them.† â€Å"Perfect. We'll see you tonight. Promise me you'll ask someone out. Or at least look for someone to ask out.† â€Å"I promise.† â€Å"Good. Did you get that new blue pinstripe tailored yet?† â€Å"Stay out of my closet.† â€Å"Don't you need to get going?† Ray figured that it had probably started when Charlie murdered all those little animals he brought home for his daughter. Maybe buying the big black dogs was a cry for help – pets that someone would really notice being gone. According to the movies, they all started out that way – with the little animals, then before long they moved up to hitchhikers, hookers, and pretty soon they were mummifying a whole flock of counselors at some remote summer camp and posing the crusty remains around a card table in their mountain lair. The mountain lair didn't fit the profile for Charlie, since he had allergies, but that might just be an indication of his diabolical genius. (Ray had been a street cop, so it hadn't really been necessary for him to study criminal profiling, and his theories tended toward the colorful, a side effect of his Beta Male imagination and large DVD collection.) But Charlie had asked Ray to use his contacts on the force and at the DMV a half-dozen times to locate people, all of whom ended up dead a few weeks later. But not murders. And while a lot of items belonging to the recently deceased had turned up in the shop in the last few years (Ray had found antitheft numbers etched on a dozen items and called them in to a friend on the force who identified the owners), none of them had been murdered either. There were a few accidents, but mostly it was natural causes. Either Charlie was devious to an extraordinary degree, or Ray was out of his mind, a possibility that he didn't discount completely, if for no other reason than he had three ex-wives who would testify to it. Thus, he'd devised the workout ruse to draw Charlie out. Then again, Charlie had always treated him really well, and if it turned out he didn't have a mountain lair full of mummified camp counselors, Ray knew he'd feel bad about tricking him. What if there was nothing wrong with Charlie except that he needed to get laid? Ray was chatting with Eduardo, his new girlfriend at when Charlie came down the back steps. â€Å"Ray, I need you to find someone for me.† â€Å"Hang on a second, I have to sign off. Charlie, check out my new squeeze.† Ray pulled up a photo on the screen of a heavily made-up but attractive Asian woman. â€Å"She's pretty, Ray. I can't give you any time off right now to go to the Philippines, though. Not until we hire someone to take Lily's shifts.† Charlie leaned into the screen. â€Å"Dude, her name is Eduardo.† â€Å"I know. It's a Filipino thing, like Edwina.† â€Å"She has a five-o'clock shadow.† â€Å"You're just being a racist. Some races have more facial hair than others. I don't care about that, I just want someone who is honest and caring and attractive.† â€Å"She has an Adam's apple.† Ray squinted at the screen, then quickly clicked off the monitor and spun around on the stool. â€Å"So who do you need me to find?† â€Å"It's okay, Ray,† Charlie said. â€Å"An Adam's apple doesn't preclude someone from being honest, caring, and attractive, it just makes it less likely.† â€Å"Right. It was just bad lighting, I think. Anyway, who do you need to find?† â€Å"All I have is the name Madison McKerny. I know he or she lives in the city, but that's all I know.† â€Å"It's a she.† â€Å"Pardon me?† â€Å"Madison, it's a stripper's name.† Charlie shook his head. â€Å"You know this woman?† â€Å"I don't know her, although the name seems familiar. But Madison is a new-generation stripper name. Like Reagan and Morgan.† â€Å"Lost me, Ray.† â€Å"I've spent some time in strip joints, Charlie. I'm not proud of it, but it's sort of what you do when you're a cop. And you pick up on the pattern of stripper names.† â€Å"Didn't know that.† â€Å"Yeah, and there's sort of a progression going back to the fifties: Bubbles, Boom Boom, and Blaze begat Bambi, Candy, and Jewel, who begat Sunshine, Brandy, and Cinnamon, who begat Amber, Brittany, and Brie, who begat Reagan, Morgan, and Madison. Madison is a stripper name.† â€Å"Ray, you weren't even alive in the fifties.† â€Å"No, I wasn't alive during the forties either, but I know about World War Two and big-band music. I'm into history.† â€Å"Right. So, I need to look for a stripper? Doesn't help. I don't even know where to start.† â€Å"I'll go through the DMV and the tax records. If she's in town we'll have an address on her by this afternoon. Why do you need to find her?† There was a pause while Charlie pretended to find a smudge on the glass of the counter display case, wiped it away, then said, â€Å"Uh, it's an estate thing. One of the estates we got recently had some items that were left to her.† â€Å"Shouldn't the executor of the estate take care of that, or his lawyer?† â€Å"It's minutiae, not named in the will. The executor asked me to handle it. There's fifty bucks in it for you.† Ray grinned. â€Å"That's okay, I was going to help anyway, but if she turns out to be a stripper I get to go with you, okay?† â€Å"Deal,† Charlie said. Three hours later Ray gave the address to Charlie and watched as his boss bolted out of the shop and grabbed a cab. Why a cab? Why not take the van? Ray wanted to follow, needed to follow, but he had to find someone to cover the store. He should have anticipated this, but he'd been distracted. Ray had been distracted since talking to Charlie, not just by the search for Madison McKerny, but also because he was trying to figure out how to work â€Å"Do you have a penis?† casually into the conversation with his sweetheart, Eduardo. After a couple of teasing e-mails, he could stand it no longer and had just typed out, Eduardo, not that it makes any difference, but I'm thinking of sending you some sexy lingerie as a friendship present, and I wondered if I should make any special accommodations for the panties. Then he waited. And waited. And granted that it was five in the morning in Manila, he was second-guessing himself. Had he been too vague, or had he not been vague enough? And now he had to go. He knew where Charlie was going, but he had to get there before anything happened. He dialed Lily's cell phone, hoping that she wouldn't be working at her other job and would do him a favor. â€Å"Speak, ingrate,† Lily answered. â€Å"How did you know it was me?† Ray asked. â€Å"Ray?† â€Å"Yeah, how did you know it was me?† â€Å"I didn't,† Lily said. â€Å"What do you want?† â€Å"Can you come cover the store for me for a couple of hours?† Then, as he heard her take a deep breath that he was pretty sure would be propellant for verbal abuse, he added, â€Å"There's fifty bucks extra in it for you.† Ray heard her exhale. Yes! After graduating from the Culinary Institute, Lily had gotten a job as a sous chef at a bistro in North Beach, but she didn't make enough to move out of her mother's apartment yet, so she let Charlie talk her into keeping a couple of shifts at Asher's Secondhand, at least until he could find a replacement. â€Å"Okay, Ray, I'll come in for a couple of hours, but I have to be at the restaurant by five, so be back or I'm closing up early.† â€Å"Thanks, Lily.† Charlie sincerely hoped that Ray wasn't a serial killer, despite all the indications to the contrary. He would never have found this woman without Ray's police contacts, and what would he do in the future if he needed to find someone and Ray was in jail? Then again, Ray's experience as a cop could account for his never leaving any evidence. But why, then, would he continue to pursue the Filipino women over the Internet if he was just looking to kill people? Maybe that's what he did when he went to the Philippines to visit his paramours. Maybe he killed desperate Filipinas. Maybe Ray was a tourist serial killer. Deal with it later, Charlie thought. For now, there's a soul vessel to retrieve. Charlie got out of the cab outside of the Fontana, an apartment building just a block up from Ghirardelli Square, the waterfront chocolate factory turned tourist mall. The Fontana was a great, curved, concrete-and-glass building that commanded views of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge, and that had drawn the disdain of San Franciscans since it had been built in the 1960s. It wasn't that it was an ugly building, although no one would argue that it wasn't, but with the Victorian and Edwardian structures all around it, it looked very much like a giant air conditioner from outer space attacking a nineteenth-century neighborhood. However, the views from the apartments were exquisite, there was a doorman, underground parking, and a pool on the roof, so if you could handle the stigma of residing in an architectural pariah, it was a great place to live. The address Ray had given him for Madison was on the twenty-second floor, and so, presumably, was her soul vessel. Charlie wasn't sure of the exact range of his unnoticeability (he refused to think of it as invisibility, because it wasn't), but he hoped that it reached twenty-two floors. He was going to have to get past the doorman and into an elevator, and posing as an estate buyer wasn't going to work. Ah, well, nothing ventured, nothing gained. If he got caught, he'd just have to find another way in. He waited by the door until a young woman in business attire went in, then followed her into the lobby. The doorman didn't even look at him. Ray saw Charlie get out of the cab and told his own driver to stop a block away, where he hopped out, threw the driver a five and told him to keep the change, then dug in his pocket for the rest of the fare while the driver pounded on the wheel impatiently and cursed under his breath in Urdu. â€Å"Sorry, it's been a while since I took a cab,† Ray said. Ray had a car, a nice little Toyota, but the only parking place he could find was eight blocks away from his apartment in the parking lot of a hotel managed by a friend of his, and when you got a parking place in San Francisco, you kept it, so Ray mostly used public transportation and only drove the car on his days off to keep the battery charged. He'd jumped in a taxi outside Charlie's shop and shouted, â€Å"Follow that cab!† thus completely terrifying the Japanese family in the back. â€Å"Sorry,† Ray said. â€Å"Konichiwa. It's been a while since I took a cab.† Then he jumped back out and caught a cab that didn't have a fare. He sneaked quickly up the street, going from light post, to newspaper machine, to ad kiosk, ducking behind each, staying in his stealth-crouch, and achieving nothing whatsoever except to look like a complete loon to the kid standing at the bus stop across the street. He reached the underground parking entrance of the Fontana just as Charlie was making for the door. Ray crouched behind the key-card pillar. He wasn't sure what he was going to do if Charlie went for the building. Fortunately, he'd memorized Madison McKerny's phone number, and he could warn her that Charlie was coming. In the cab on the way down here he'd remembered where he'd seen her name: on the register at his health club. Madison McKerny was one of the midmorning fuck puppets from the gym, and as Ray suspected, Charlie was stalking her. He watched Charlie fall in behind a young woman in business dress who was heading up the walk into the Fontana, then Charlie was gone. Just gone. Ray came out onto the sidewalk to get a better angle. The woman was still there, she'd gone only a couple of steps, but he couldn't see Charlie. There were no bushes, no walls, the whole damn lobby was glass, where the hell had he gone? Ray was sure he hadn't looked away, he didn't even think he had blinked, and he would have seen any sudden move Charlie might have made. Reverting to the Beta Male's tendency to blame himself, Ray wondered if maybe he'd had some kind of petit mal seizure that had made him black out for a second. Whether he did or not, he had to warn Madison McKerny. He reached to his belt and felt the empty cell-phone clip, then remembered putting his phone under the register when he'd gotten to work that morning. Charlie found the right apartment and rang the bell. If he could get Madison McKerny to come out into the hallway, he could slip in behind her and look through her apartment for her soul vessel. Just down the hall there was a table with an artificial flower arrangement. He'd tipped it over, hoping she was compulsive or curious enough to come out of her apartment to get a closer look. If she wasn't home, well, he'd have to break in. Odds were that with a doorman downstairs, she didn't have an alarm system. But what if she could see him? Sometimes they could, the clients. Not often, but it happened, and – She opened the door. Charlie was stunned. She was stunning. Charlie stopped breathing and stared at her breasts. It wasn't that she was a young and gorgeous brunette, with perfect hair and perfect skin. Nor was it that she was wearing a thin, white silk robe that just barely concealed her swimsuit-model figure. Nor was it because she had disproportionately large but alert breasts that were straining against the robe and peeking out of the plunging neckline as she leaned out the door, although that would have been enough to render the hapless Beta breathless under any circumstances. It was that her breasts were glowing red, right through the silk robe, glowing right out of the dcolletage like twin rising suns, pulsating like the lightbulb boobies of a kitschy Hawaiian hula girl lamp. Madison McKerny's soul was residing in her breast implants. â€Å"I've got to get my hands on those,† Charlie said, forgetting that he wasn't exactly alone and he wasn't exactly thinking to himself. Then Madison McKerny noticed that Charlie was there and the screaming started.

Globalization & Culture

This report presents the findings from two interviews conducted on two subjects namely; Kyu Yong (Eric) Kim and another one known as Brian (Choi). The interview used semi-structured method to interview the two subjects. The aim of the interview was to investigate the effects globalisation has had on them. This was done with an aim of determining how cultural orientations are shaped or determined by globalization. Also the interview aimed at analyzing as well as presenting views on the topics from literature review available. The reason for settling on the two as suitable candidates for the problem under investigation was due to two reasons: First of all, the fact that both subjects have interacted with people from two or more cultures different from theirs. Secondly, both subjects have been subjected to different cultures mainly for reasons related to globalization in one way or the other. Finally, the interviewees were selected because of their accessibility to the interviewer as well as their willingness to participate in the interview. The findings of the interview are discussed below and effort is put in order to generalize the findings to the bigger population. Definations. Globalisation is the process of improved interactions of people from cultural countries, economic as well as social orientations afforded by the rapid growth of ICT transportation and advancement in technology such as ECD, internet, mobile phones and satellite communication. Culture can be defined as the way of life of a people mainly on how people relate and interact with the environment, their beliefs, their nutrition, their religion, their traditions as well as their aspirations. Culture is affected and shaped by many factors but of all of them, it is globalization that has had the greatest impact on culture. Results/findings for Brian Choi Brian represents two cultures, American culture and Korean culture. He is a represents blended culture. From the interview, when asked about what culture was and represented, his response was, â€Å"I believe culture is what shapes you and influences the way you act and think. Culture according to me represents beliefs which are so much intertwined in a person that it becomes very hard to change cultures or to forfeit ones culture†. From the above verbatim, Brian raises a critical point that culture is embedded in ones belief. According to(Robertson, 1992)belief plays an important role in shaping culture in that cultural practices such as songs, dances, worship, marriage as well as political systems are all unique to different cultures. As far as songs are concerned, songs from a particular group or community may reflect the beliefs of the particular community or group. This factor is necessary in order to understand why people believe in what they believe in. In the traditional Korean set up, songs were used in ceremonies as landmarks for special events. Up to date, there has been little influence on the Korean music/songs from other cultures such as western culture. This can be proved by the following comments made by Brain in the interview process. Asked about the role of songs in the Korean culture Brian replied that â€Å"in Korea songs are sacred, when a group of people and possibly any gathering is commenced with a song. In terms of cultural beliefs, is useful as a tool of communication and therefore handling down the treasured values of the Koreans. The fact that culture is fast being eroded by modernization and globalization was of central importance to the interview. According to Brian, globalization has affected the Korean culture in a number of ways including; ) Globalisation has led to penetration of foreign cultural practices in Korea. Specifically globalization through enhanced communication through mobile as well as internet has contributed to communication with various people in different parts of the world. This has in turn led to the contamination of the Korean culture in that more people than ever before are as a direct result of modern technology of communication, getting married to people outside their own c ultures. This has had impact on the Korean culture in that, whenever marriages outside cultural boundaries occur. The culture is assimilated fully in some cases while in others it is changed due to the integration. In cases where the two cultures may be incompatible total abandonment results and therefore one is forced to adopt a new culture. According to Brian, the leading cause on cultural deviation is marriage, in that more than ever before, more people are getting to interact and intermingle with different cultures and therefore becoming more open to change. This is supported by (Robertson, 1992) who notes that marriage is a powerful tool of taking people out of their ethnical tribal racial or religions cocoons. The claim is further supported by who notes that apart from the effect marriage has on culture, it too does affect peoples view and perception, of others and these is one of the self means of easing tensions between diverse groups communities or races historically penetration of discrimination or segregation of various forms of way perfected by proponents of such, discouraging and in some cases criminalizing, inter-tribal, or interracial marriages. A good case is in the apartheid Era, South Africa where Boers were not permitted to marry Africans and a move in contradiction to the above was punishable. This served best interests of apartheid supporters. Therefore globalization in the sense that it leads to more advances of cultural marriages has contributed to easing tensions in many groups or societies. Culture any conflict According to (Thomas, & Wilkin, 1997) culture difference, which in turn depends on myths, religion or history of a people is often a cause of personal conflict, religious conflict as well as political on that this culture has become a major force in many conflicts taking place in the modern times. Brian in this case is not affected by political conflict, but by a more subtle form of conflict, personal conflict which in turn translates into identity crisis. Identity crisis in relation to culture refers to a situation whereby an individual as a result of belonging to different cultures either naturally or by environmental related factors gets into a situation whereby he or she is face with unique challenges of which they must negotiate in order to progress peacefully in their cultures. In the case of Brian, his primary culture is Korea while his secondary culture is America. The fact that he likes identifying himself as American points to the fact that he is happy to belong to America. However, he likes travelling back to Korea for visits once or twice every fortnight. This connotes another attraction to Korea. Actually he is connected to the people of Korea and the visits cannot be dismissed as holidays but have a cultural bearing. On the other hand, the fact hat Brian does not deny belonging to any of the cultures points to the fact that he could easily pass for a person exhibiting and practising two cultures. Although Brian was silent on how religious practices in the two cultures, Korean and American have affected him, religion is known to play a crucial role in culture. There is evidence that most of the conflicts happening in the 21st century are directly caused by cultural differences rooted in diversity of religious beliefs (Teeple, 1995). For instance in Ireland, Catholics and Protestants have been known to regularly clash over cultural differences. Elsewhere, Muslims and Christians have on numerous occasions been involved in armed and prolonged conflicts all resulting to cultural differences. While as globalization is supposed to bring a solution to this dilemma, that has not been the case and globalization has to be utilized positively if much of the cultural tensions being experienced today are to be diluted. However, Brian owns up to being a victim of ideologized cultural conflict. To him, this has been manifested in the way he has to adapt to capitalistic tendencies commonly upheld by majority of the American while at the same reserving the more socialistic values learnt in Korean, and which is so much embedded in peoples’ everyday life activities. The other culture shock which Brian admits to having come face to face with is, the value attached to work in America is high compared to Korea, as far as work ethics is concerned, Brian equates the average American worker as very hard working and dedicated compared to an average worker, in Korea. According to him globalization has had an impact on work ethics in Korea in that, many American multinationals are opening up plants in Korea, employing local for semi skilled and unskilled labor. This in turn is inculcating American culture into the locals something which is shaping Koreans and in a way changing the status-quo. From his individual standpoint, Brian alluded to the fact in US, he is faced with many challenges especially when it comes to adjusting to organizational culture. The wide cultural differences are hard to adjust to and according him, many are the days that he experiences face-to face confrontations with his supervisor due to what he termed as irreconcilable cultural differences. Asked on his final word on globalization and culture he noted that, that people should share information, share resources, exchange goods and services in what is referred to as trade. All this can be achieved only through dissecting cultures and taking out the impediments to prosperity but retaining all the positives that enhance every human being’s fundamental rights and freedom. Eric Kyu Yong Eric though not as enthusiastic about the issue as Brian, yielded into very insightful information which clearly points to the roles importance, advantages, disadvantages as well as the shortcomings of globalization and the way it has been conceptualised in relation to cultural orientations. Eric points the fact that he has experienced directly both â€Å"worlds† that is, Korea and America. He confided this as something that has shaped his understating of the problem of globalization and culture. Having spent his childhood and part of his early teenage years in Korea and then proceeded to live in America. The fact that Eric was of age by the time he left Korea for the US made him a suitable subject for the interview in that he could yield to great insights on the problem. Asked about the merits and demerits of globalization on culture. Eric pointed to the following as the merits of globalization on culture. First of all, globalization has created an opening to cultural exposure. This has been occasioned by the booming tourism business which almost always undertakes to promote indigenous cultures, in places where it exists. According to Eric, when tourists from various parts of the world undertake foreign trips to different destinations, a cultural interaction results and two or multiple cultures almost always yield into great cultural impacts. This is made possible by globalization through efficient and reliable transport system. Although Eric was quick to point to the fact that his cultural experiences are not tourism related, he observed that what first hit his mind on arrival to America was his belief that people are culturally the same and the way they do things is the same no matter the origin. To his shock, Eric soon learnt that cultural orientation were very significant contributor to the way of life of a people. While in Korea people valued foods cooked traditionally and served in traditional cook-ware, in the US the society is very busy compared to Korea. People tended to work for long hours and lacked time for social life. Eric’s first time experience led him to believe for a very long time that his society back in Korea was simply no match for his new society. This was to change soon as he developed keen interest into understanding modern factors which influenced culture. According to him, over the past decade, he has observed so many similarities in the two cultures that he has begun to actually doubt whether any significant differences actually occur between the two cultures. This he attributes to globalization which he refers to have enabled instant communication, hence sharing and exchange of information. With the advent of telecommunication, people are able to communicate via satellite, consult over important international matters, as well as agitate for common stance on key issues. As far as culture is concerned, people have as a result of globalization been able to inter-marry and therefore aid minimizing the cultural gap that exist between different cultures. Eric confidently asserted that he had as a foregone conclusion decided to marry an American. This he said was aimed to allow him to further understand better the American culture, for which as he admitted, marks the epitome of cultural variations, co-existence and collaboration. According to him, these developments were unheard of in the 60’s but have been occasioned by the relatively rapid speed with which globalization has contributed to cultural changes. Eric noted that the greatest culture shock he experienced was as a result of noticing how the value attached to marriages so much differed in the two countries, that is Korea and America. According to him, the high divorce rates in America, and the de-emphasis on extended family was so much in contravention to the culture in Korea whereby the value-system is embedded in the extended families. According to him, this is evidenced by the way generations after generations share same names in what is believed as to be respect to the dead. This, Eric noted, has of late changed and more nuclear families are sprouting up. Eric added that this can be attributed to globalisation as this practice is highly attributable to the influence foreign cultures and especially western culture has had on the contemporary Korea society- specifically ICT and internet, were identified to have contributed to this development in that, these enables people to interact online through emails, on-line chatting, online friendships and in some cases, marriage. All the above have changed people and made them open up to change including accepting and borrowing some aspects of foreign cultures as on example, Eric pointed to the fact that, in Korea it was traditionally a taboo to divorce unless for some specific and well known reasons. Even under the above mentioned conditions, the situation involved a long and rigorous process which had to be sanctioned by some designated members of the society such as traditional elders. The other key contribution of globalization to culture according to Eric was clothing. In Korea, Eric noted that traditionally clothing is regulated. For women, the conditions and requirements are stringent and are supposed to be adhered to strictly unless one is ready to be termed as an ‘outcast’. Earning the term has its own negative effects in that one is virtually locked out into the benefits enjoyed by other members such as getting a bride or bridegroom, inheriting as well as education. However Eric pointed out that, globalization has significantly changed these perceptions. He noted that when his siblings including the sisters visit America, they enthusiastically shop and dress American and it is no longer a big issue. This he attributes also to globalization, according to him, upon coming to America he considered some dressing codes as totally unacceptable. His level of cultural tolerance was totally ‘amiss’ in his own words. However, he later learnt to accept and live with it especially on campus as members of the university were youngsters who were outgoing and hardly conservative. His experiences at the university contributed positively to his changed perceptions on cultures and he got to appreciate diversity and dynamism that so strongly shape culture. According to Eric though, no culture is superior to another but some culture so strongly influence others to the point of absorbing them completely. Although he down played the effect globalization has had on him particularly, he specifically mentioned that, his interaction with the America culture, largely occasioned by globalization has changed his life. Conclusion Globalisation has had major influence on culture, and it is not surprising that the cultures in two different countries that is America and Korea, as evidenced in the interview represent globalization influence on culture. From the evidence gathered from the interview with Brian and Eric, culture and globalization are intertwined and therefore influence each other. From the two interviewees, it was possible to deduce the factors which shape cultures. From the report, it can be recommended that, more research need to be carried out in order to determine how globalization can be shaped to avoid taking away from the achievements so far realized in integrating different cultures. On the same note, there is a need for efforts from governments and other key stakeholders to come up with policies which protect indigenous cultures from negative effects of globalization. This should be done with an aim of preventing erosion of positive aspects of cultures however small. Finally globalization should be encouraged in as far as it promotes development of cultural issues such as integrating of cultures which helps solve numerous challenges such as racial, tribal or ethnic tensions.

Politcal Science 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Politcal Science 2 - Essay Example These include paints, plastics, synthetic fibers and rubber, fertilizers and others. Their production involves the use of oil. Truly, if oil were no longer available, the economies of the industrial nations would grind to a halt in a matter of months! Even serious shortages would be severely damaging, as has been evidenced by what has happened since the Arab lands have cut down the amount of oil they were supplying other nations. First of all, is the world's supply of oil running out No, there is not really a shortage of oil on this planet, as of now. True, if present usage continues, someday it could conceivably run out. But that is not the case now, for proved reserves are more than enough for the industrial nations for quite a few years yet. However, there is indeed an oil crisis. One reason centers on the availability of the oil. In some places it is being used faster than new oil can be pumped out of the ground and refined into its various products. Any nation that uses more oil than it produces will have a problem. And the world is using it so fast that at times it has trouble getting enough from various sources. This leads to the more fundamental problem: the largest oil users are often the ones that do not have large supplies within their borders. They are more often 'oil poor,' not having enough reserves within the ground that they can tap.

Social Causes of the Decline in Marriage Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Social Causes of the Decline in Marriage - Essay Example Marriage is simply not respected as it once was. The expectation from marriage is eroded. The cult of personal autonomy and the rise of modern world and the views have only accelerated this process of ignoring marriages. Still, the decline of marriage as an institution is not uniform across the culture. Statistics show that marriage is losing ground among African Americans more quickly than within the society at large. The American family system has gone through a lot of changes in the past centuries-marriage and divorce rates, cohabitation, childbearing, sexual behavior, and women working outside the home (Cherlin, 2005). Though marriage generally remains the living arrangement for raising children, there are increasing number of poor and minority children growing up in single-parent families and experiencing family instability. Among the American racial groups since the 1960s, the decline of marriage as a social institution has been more evident with African Americans. According to Jones (2006), the African Americans have the lowest marriage rate among all racial groups in the United States. In 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stated that more than 70 percent of all the black families in the United States are headed by married couples (Kinnon, 2003). But in 2002, that number was 48 percent. Moreover, there is an alarming increase in number of black women and men who have never been wedded. The 2001 U. S. Census reveals that 43.3 percent of black men and 41.9 percent of black women in America in comparison to 27.4 percent white men and 20.7 percent white women had never been married (Jones, 2006; Mohler, 2006). There is a much worse case that concludes that African American women are the least likely in the society to marry and they are increasing in number. From 62 percent of black women who are married, the number declined to 31 percent in the period between 1950 and 2002. Jones (2006) states that the overall marriage rate in the United States, weakened by 17 percent, while for blacks, it declined by 34 percent. Section A: Literature Review The decline of marriage by African Americans has been questioned by a lot of researchers through the years. There is a sudden urge to know the reasons of the shift in African American customs, in the community, in the people's consciousness that has made marriage seem unnecessary or unattainable (Jones, 2006). . Today 63% of the families headed by African Americans are by single parent. The direct impact of this reversal in attitude towards marriage is that there have been dramatic demographic changes in the number of Black children being reared by a single parent over the last decade. Arguments and discussions about the "pathologies" of Black families have intensified. New questions are raised regarding the impact of having Black children reared by their mothers without their fathers along with this demographic shift. Much of the research on single-parent families has tended to focus on male children and adolescents. Female Headed Black Families Noted sociologist E. F. Frazier

Nervewire case study Introduction and conclusion only Essay

Nervewire case study Introduction and conclusion only - Essay Example They must also be able to solve conflict along the way without compromising the quality of the project. Nervewire Inc is a management consulting business that was created as a new business with the vision of doing this business differently than anyone else was. Their goal was to supply ideas to fortune 500 companies and Malcolm Frank had the vision to get there. His first goal was to hire a team that fit the culture of the company and people he knew he could work with. He also planned to bring together people with ideas and creativeness and those that were willing to dedicate themselves to the project. He hired Kirk Arnold as COO because of his prior success and his abilities to see the future. Frank was successful in his endeavor of building an effective team and his new business grew quite rapidly. This paper will discuss Nervewire, what was important about how they built their business and how the two personalities of Frank and Arnold drove their company to success, surviving and growing through a major recession. Nervewire is a new company that has survived the recession. Created with success in mind, they became and have remained successful. Malcolm Frank had a vision and hired a man name Kirk Arnold who helped fuel that vision.

The Medium is the message - explore what Marshall McLuhan meant by Essay

The Medium is the message - explore what Marshall McLuhan meant by this statement, tie it to ways the Internet and telecommunica - Essay Example The medium is the message as a metaphor is important in understanding the new electronic media as well. One could well argue that the medium is the unconscious of the media. Every medium is encrypted with its own messages which in turn substantially influence the message or the content. It is through analyzing the shift from traditional media to the new electronic media; McLuhan understood the nuances of medium as the message. The purpose of the essay is to examine the major postulates of McLuhan’s theoretical leap and some of the responses to from other scholars against the new developments in media of the present world. McLuhan’s Conception of Medium Although, the sentence ‘medium is the message’ is apparently very simple; it has many complex connotations. At first, it is just equating the medium with the message. Secondly but most importantly, if medium is the message, all other messages become secondary or non-messages. Therefore, it stipulates that the medium is the primary message and whatever message is inscripted on it is not substantial or exist only in permanent reference to the message of the medium. McLuhan does not negate the existence of the message of the content; therefore, he asserts that â€Å"although the medium is the message, the controls go beyond the programming. The restraints are always directed to the ‘content’, which is always another medium† (305). It means that the message of the medium is primary and the message of the content withstand only with reference to the message. It is important to remember that every medium is the extension of human capabilities and different mediums alters different human capabilities in different ways. Medium is what is form in literature; it is not just capturing the content but reproduces it in many ways. As we cannot understand an art work without deconstructing the form, the message of a media can only be understood when we deconstruct the politics of i ts medium. It is widely observed that the communication revolution in the technological sphere has not yet turned out to be a communication revolution in the real world. Although, there exist actual potentials for disseminating information which is crucial to enhance democracy among the broad masses, the internet media world has not advanced much in this line. Not only the media has failed in deepening democracy in general but also is unable to substantiate democracy within itself. It is because of the fact that as a medium the new information communication technologies are necessarily fragmented and not amenable to deep contemplation. By and large, global media is controlled the big corporations which are even more wealthy than a number of countries in the Global South. The much celebrated ‘marketplace of ideas’ is no more considered as free as it appears. It is not just because of the fact that American media conglomerates have more corporate and monitory power. On th e other hand, the new media technologies as medium are highly amenable to corporatization and monopolization. Therefore, we never have a media world without monopolies; one monopoly will always be replaces with another. The emergence of terms such as public service broadcasting, alternative media, citizen’s journalism, and independent media centers and so on denotes both the phenomenal corporatization of media and the ongoing global

Vocabulary Strategies with ELL Students Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Vocabulary Strategies with ELL Students - Essay Example Students’ usage of first language for learning second language is the best practice for vocabulary learning as students can relate the words with one another. Students should be well equipped with knowledge of basic words as it is essential to excel with prior basic knowledge and for that purpose, transfer of cognate knowledge is required. It can be best implemented by allowing the students of ELL to find similarities and contrasts between their vocabulary of the words of their language and vocabulary of the second language. August, et al. (2005) informs that less efforts are done towards researching the best strategies for ELL students. However, transference of cognate knowledge is effective strategy for learning vocabulary. The second article that is taken for study is â€Å"Effective Instructional Strategies for English Language Learners in Mainstream Classrooms† by Susan (2004). According to Susan (2004), SIOP that can be abbreviated as Sheltered Instruction Observa tion Protocol is the best model that can be used for teaching students about English vocabulary. Susan (2004) explains that vocabulary plays an important role in language acquisition but lack of vocabulary appears as an obstruction for students of ELL in reading. There should be a vocabulary program setup for the vocabulary improvement of the English language learners. There are various stages that are described by Susan (2004) in the lieu of SIOP model. The whole exercise of planning and developing a program comes under the category of SIOP model. Word choice, allowance to students to use new words and new combinations and asking students to describe and explain words according to their own understanding, all are employed to teach the students of ELL to learn vocabulary. While using the approach of SIOP, the teachers should not use jargons or difficult words to teach students in order to facilitate them to learn in a comprehensible and easy manner.

Dyspareunia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Dyspareunia - Essay Example Such sexual dysfunctions include sexual desire disorders, sexual pain disorders, and sexual arousal disorders. Thus, if a person has difficulty in some stage of the response cycle or experiences pain during sexual intercourse, he/she, according to Miller, is positive in having a sexual dysfunction. Sexual dysfunctions have many types. Sexual dysfunction is said to have a sexual dysfunction as early as ones sexual fantasies are increasing while the actual intercourse is decreasing and later on, the absence of it. This kind of sexual disorder is called as Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder. However, before any sexual difficulty was supposed to be called a disorder or dysfunction, an individual must be affected first. (Bornstein J, Shapiro S, Rahat M, Goldshmid N, Goldik Z, Abramovici H, et al., 1996) Furthermore, one rare sexual dysfunction is called as the Sexual Aversion Disorder, wherein the person involved is relentlessly avoiding having genitals contact with his/her partner and thus, having a great effect with the sexual relationship. Actually, there are so many kinds of sexual disorders, like Female Sexual Disorder, Male Erectile Disorder, Female and Male Orgasmic Disorder, Premature Ejaculation and of course the most popular among the categories of sexual disorders; dyspareunia. ... It is said that dyspareunia is sometimes chronic in nature. (Butcher J, 1999) On the other hand, Vertosick Frank (2000), discussed in his article in 'behave net' that if the presence of psychological factors played an important role in the pain felt by a person, like in the start, exactness, exacerbation or continuation of the pain, this is considered as a pain disorder. Thus, the pain is not caused deliberately nor created or mocked. Another thing to classify what is pain disorder; we can associate it with psychological factors and general medications. Diagnostic for the pain disorder is recognized as follows: pain in one or more anatomical parts is the principal focus of the clinical arrangement and is of strictly adequate to demand medical attention; what causes pain is basically misery or with mutilation in occupational, social or in other important areas of functioning; the pain is not faked nor intentionally produced and it is not associated with mood, anxiety or psychotic disorders; and lastly, psychological factors played a significant role in the beginning, rigorousness, exacerbation or in maintenance of the pain. (Binik, Y. M., 2005) Based on the definitions of sexual and pain disorder, we can clearly draw the line in categorizing dyspareunia. However, to make the arguments about the classification of dyspareunia more clearly and the information more accurately, lets define dyspareunia and what are the standards of DSM-IV-TR in labeling it as a sexual pain disorder. Dyspareunia, according to Steege and Ling, is the repeated and persistent genital pain related with sexual activity, in either the male or female. It may be due to emotional, organic and or psychogenic causes. However, some studies said that dyspareunia is associated with a more

Ethics, as It Pertains to Information Technology Term Paper

Ethics, as It Pertains to Information Technology - Term Paper Example Ethics in information technology is a branch of philosophy that deals with how people should make decisions concerned with their professional conduct, when using information technology. Computers have dramatically changed information handling and communication, but have also caused ethical questions to be raised on standards that the users of information technology should uphold in order to be at par with the expectations from the society. The most theatrical abuse of computer technology is the rampant internet hackings of company websites and online theft of credit card numbers. Such cases are imperceptible, frequent and tied to everyday workings of ordinary, law abiding citizens and different situations are on the rise with great frequency due to computer hacking. Hacking is a situation where an individual referred to as a hacker, gains, or attempts to gain access to resources or services belonging to someone else from their computer databases, usually organizations or companies wi thout their prior authorization or awareness (Davis, Philipp and Cowen, 2005). Such activities lead to the disruption of services, loss of data as well as vandalism of data, software or even hardware resources. Hackers are motivated by a multitude of reasons, which include, getting profits, protests, or to gain recognition based on the enormity of the challenge. Hackers have different attitudes and aims. They use different terms to differentiate themselves from each other, or to exclude themselves from specific groups that they have disagreements with. Members of the computer underground should be referred to as crackers and not hackers. A cracker is someone who gains unauthorized access to a computer in order to commit crimes such as information theft. The amount of data and its confidentiality amplifies the concerns that are raised over information technology ethics, and why they should be maintained. Organizations are then forced to device come up with ethical standards that will guide their employees conduct while at the same time ensuring that they remain within the bounds of acceptable public ethics. However, there has been a disregard of societal ethics where companies have employed espionage tactics over rival companies to gain unfair competitive advantage by hacking into their information systems or purchasing information from hackers. In other cases, inquisitive minors have done hacking using a computer and an internet connection. A good example is that of a juvenile who, in March of 1997, sent a couple of computer commands from his personal computer effectively and disabled a telephone company services that was serving an airport in the United States. Such actions have drawn major attention from security agencies such as the F.B.I, and they have made fighting computer hacking be one of their priorities. In the recent past, there has been an accelerated increase in the number of organized hacker groups all over the world. Such groups gather occasiona lly in conventions such as DEF CON, HoHoCon, and SummerCon and such conventions provide information and a means to learn from other members. Hackers also gain credibility by affiliating themselves to elite hacker organizations. Public interest groups such as the computer Ethics Institute have been in the frontline in trying to lay down the ethical standards that computer users should uphold. Various security agencies have highly prioritized cases of hacking to the extent of setting up a

The Black Death and the World it Made Essay Example for Free

The Black Death and the World it Made Essay The Black Death or The Black Plague, as it is known in history, was the worst disaster in medical history to date considering it proportionately (more than 40 percent mortality rate). It was so devastating in its effect that within 3 years time (1347-1350) the whole Europe was made aware of its dark presence in spite of the disadvantages of that period in terms of media coverage. The Plague had proven itself to be no respecter of person when it visited and touched every family from those of the highest in the ladder of society to the lowest – royal families, monasteries, and farms. This medieval history is highly significant especially when looked at through the lenses of high technology twenty first century. The threat of mass killings as posed by Bio-Chemical warfare, Mad-Cow-Disease (MCD), Bird-Flu-Virus (BFV), etc. , is so pertinent that a close look once again at the historic Black Plague merits anybody’s concern especially those bothered by the threat. What everybody knows about this event in man’s history is only mere fraction of what really occurred. Cantor dug deep into what are new scientific discoveries and the aid of historical research to give a wide-angled and more panoramic vista on the experience of the people of their day. Overview Well-known medievalist Norman Cantor relates the story of the renowned Black Death afresh with an eye of a Chronicler. In his book In the Wake of the Plague, Cantor narrates the story of the pandemic and its widespread effects with an intention, not only to retell and revive what happened during the spread of the plague, but to inform and quicken the modern reader of the possibility of it happening again in the same proportion that it transpired in the 14th century, or maybe exceeding the mortality rate it has incurred then, if the world behaves indifferently to the prospect. In the Book, the Black Death was viewed from its wide-ranged effect (in Europe’s population) to its effect to families and individuals. The usual memory etched in the minds of people with regards to this medical disaster is that of gloomy period where the whole population just dropping dead for reasons which no man could ever explain in rational or understandable terms. The issue instilled, because of lack of scholarly approach to this episode in the history of medieval Europe, was the survival aspect. That all the people at that time needed to do was to keep themselves alive. Although this was part of the overall picture, this isn’t complete leaving some important details untouched. Norman Cantor, on the other hand, is so keen, in that, he not only has given the overall scenario of the Plague in his book but also the important and compelling details of it. For example, he narrated the early death of princess Joan of England who died at a very young age. He also tells of the death of the newly consecrated archbishop Thomas Bradwardine of Canterbury. As told in the Book, the archbishop’s rather untimely death had deep ramifications especially to the improvement of religion and science. This is compelling in that it opened the eyes of the then world to all of the possibilities of how the plague was being transmitted, from serpents to cosmic dusts. The many repercussions such as, to the economy, the overall psyche of the people in their respective locale during this period is suggested by Cantor to have their lasting effect that have reached as far as to our generation today. He suggested that it might have made the world what it is in these days of technological advances. True, scholars today have keener minds in their different fields in particular the medical field. In the very first chapter, the conference of medical practitioners and specialists was used by Cantor to jumpstart the flow of his thesis on the wide-ranging effects of the plague. Many incidents come to life. Cantor talked about Abbot Thomas, for instance, who plays a part in the historical accounts. Thomas of Birmingham or Abbot Thomas (1349), who was then at the time of the Plague, the abbot of Halesowen, was a local resident of the town whose family was native and well-known to the place; well-known enough to have named after them the city of Birmingham. The epidemic’s impact on the abbey managed by Thomas can be seen when he referred to the â€Å"harm† on the abbey’s income brought about by the â€Å"recent events† in his petition to the bishop. In spite of all these, Abbot Thomas was fortunate and had some advantages from the other lords because the abbey and the lands in Halesowen that he was managing were mostly of high quality. What is amazing of all is the argument of the author that in spite of the colossal devastation and the terrifying effects of the Plague, it had resulted in some beneficial outcome which created a new world of possibilities bigger than the destruction itself. Cantor asserted that, as often was the case in the past, the termination of the old order meant the beginning of the new generation which is more scientific in its thinking. After the Black Death, there arose an intellectual revolution. There were explosions and breakthroughs in different fields: artists had invented window protection with beautiful art designs which was calculated to block the supposed airborne virus, painters responded and painted their great paintings, and the peasants that survived the Plague flourished where they started all over again; in fact, they were Europe’s first class farmers. By and large, Black Death marked an economic change throughout Europe. It triggered what Cantor referred to as â€Å"turbo-capitalism. † Indeed, from ashes comes beauty. If what most of the advances in the west today were generated and can be traced back to one of the darkest of Europe’s history – the Plague, one may say with all truthfulness that even in natural disasters where no person has the power to control, a change for the better might be brewing. Critique Since In the Wake of the Plague was written by Norman Cantor with the advantages of the 21st century scholarship, it has the understanding and the insights that the medieval years were primarily deprived of. The calculations of Norman Cantor are all possible and can be explained, as he had done in the Book, through scientifically proven facts especially that we have all the benefits of latest discoveries in medicine. To see the Plague through the kind of perspective that the author has narrated in his book is exactly something that one can expect from a 21st century medieval scholar. In spite of some negative feedbacks that some critics have given to the book, I will give generously my two thumbs up. The Book certainly deserves to receive a five star category. It is written in a totally different approach than the former works on the Black Death. Cantor has endeavored to share his knowledge of the period and has given us details which otherwise cannot be known had it not been for the fact that a real historian has divulged them. Cantor turned from one topic to another in this book and thus able to keep those without thorough knowledge of the Plague interested till the end. Though his style of jumping from topic to topic may be viewed by some critics to be disorderly in terms of format or arrangement, they are incidental and may be looked at as his personal style. He began with the disease’s biomedical survey and pointed to the many problems with the prevailing beliefs about the Black Death’s cause, its nature and transmission. He even went to suggest that the likely cause of death was anthrax, as in many cases the same and similar symptoms were present. Indiscriminately, the Plague hit the different classes of people in many regions. In the Book, there were stories of families and individuals, making the overall narrative more personal, intimate and gripping. Looking at it in a nuclear point of view, the Plague is the 14th century counterpart or equivalent of imminent nuclear war. It makes us think seriously of the global threat of nuclear hoarding of some nations. If the calculations of Cantor in the book was accurate, then the threat of some renegade nations hoarding and multiplying anthrax and other biological/chemical materials are imminent and dangerous. In the Wake of the Plague is a book that can free many who until now view the Black Death through the mist of the many superstitions that primitive minds have made out of it. Cantor’s approach in this book is to make the past history relevant. He saw the outbreak of Mad-Cow-Disease, Foot and Mouth Disease, AIDS, and the Bird-Flu Virus happened in the middle of the 14th century when the Plague ravaged Europe. The author even believes that our world today might face a similar catastrophe in the near future. In a prophetic sense, the book has given us information and a warning. The threat of another pandemic is not far since the symptoms of what the medical world has been seeing in the recent outbreaks of diseases were the same signs that 14th century people had seen. Even the manner of transmission is deemed somewhat similar by the author. The author indirectly warned and indicated that if there will ever be another plague as devastating as the Black Death of the Medieval period, it will happen only through one of the possible causes which Cantor identified; it will be whether brought on by natural causes, or by bio-terrorism. Reference: 1. Cantor, Norman F. 2001. In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made. HarperCollins Publishers

Starbucks Target Market

Starbucks Target Market Starbucks open its first coffee store in Seattle, Washington and at the end of 1990 Starbucks expand its headquarters in Seattle and also build a new roasting plant. In 1990s Starbucks opens 60 retails shops in United Kingdom. At the end of 2000s Starbucks total branches was 3500. Coffee is one of the rapidly growing industry in this world. According to national coffee association, USA 49% of American age 18 and more drink coffee beverage every day. Coffee industry was in peak of its success at the end of 1990s. Starbucks purchases and roasts high-quality whole bean coffees and sold them along with fresh brewed coffees, Italian style espresso beverages, gold blended beverages, a various complementary food items, coffee related accessories and equipment. TARGETED MARKET AT THE TIME OF LAUNCHING At the time of Starbucks launching the target market was upper income class. But during 1990s Starbucks realise that the growth of Starbucks depends on the middle or lower class incomes because these two classes are more motivated and go to the discounted products. Starbucks also focus on consumer habits and share its speciality of coffee with the buyers. In the end of 20th century there are many changes in market that helped Starbucks getting successful. The most important change of the last twenty, thirty years is the changes of economic policies over the world. Starbucks target market was 18 years to 24 years young professional because they are not yet been loyal with coffee industry. Starbucks strategy comprises to locate its stores at picky places such as the first floor of blocks of offices, underground main entrance and urban areas. An addition to sales through its company-operated retail stores and licensed retail operations, Starbucks sells coffee and tea products through ot her channels like distribution targeting restaurants, hotels, colleges and universities and other work places. Starbucks stated goal is to become the leading retailer and brand of coffee in each of its target markets and it aims to achieve this goal through continued aggressive expansion of Company operated retail locations. STARBUCKS STRATEGY Starbucks adopt different type of strategy to build its branding in the market. Starbucks has numbers of capabilities likes market leadership and its outlets as customers means its locations which means it is the place where customers can relax from work or home and its supply chain management. To try to keep the coffee taste in the stores clean, Starbucks banned smoking and asked employees to refresh from draining perfumes. Prepared foods were kept covered so consumer would smell coffee only instead of other food. Starbucks is culture oriented company who introduce new techniques like commuter mugs and T shirts in different regions of USA that was in keeping with each citys culture(like peach shape coffee mugs for Atlanta State, Paul Revere picture for Boston State and the Statue of Liberty for New York city). To make sure that Starbucks stores reach the maximum standards, the company used mystery shoppers who posed as customers and rated each location on à Ã‚ ° number à Ã‚ ¾f criteria. Starbucks internal operations can be divided into two parts: Retail and Specialty. The Retail division is governed directly by Starbucks Corporation. The Specialty division includes foodservice, licensing agreements to overseas outlets and revenue from foreign joint ventures. STARBUCKS AIMS AND OBJECTIVES Starbucks main objective was to launch itself as the most renowned and respected brand in the world. The company main objective was to the expansion of its branches all over the world, to broad its retail business, develop new techniques, product and introduce new distribution channels in order to achieve its goals. The company another aims was establish its brand as a leading brand in coffee market by selling high quality products, providing better services and build relationship between customers and the Starbucks. SWOT ANALYSIS STRENGTHS OF STARBUCKS Starbucks is good at taking advantage of opportunities. Starbucks is internationally recognized and has a global presence Starbucks has strong ethical values. WEAKNESSES Reliable on beverage innovation Starbucks 50% business is in USA from last three decades. Starbucks need to spread its business all over the world to spread its business risk. Starbucks is dependent on a main competitive advantage, the retail of coffee. It could make them slow to diversify into other sectors should the need arise. OPPORTUNITIES Company has the opportunity to expand its business around the globe In 2004 the company created a CD burning service in their Santa Monica (California USA) cafe with Hewlett Packard, where customers create their own music CD. THREATS Starbucks are increasing the cost of coffee and dairy products Consumer taste might be change in future. Consumer can replace coffee with other cold beverage or leisure activity. CONCLUSION Starbucks is a leading company around the globe. Starbucks used  a very simple strategy, connecting links between treating employees with dignity and respect and producing à Ã‚ ° good product and services. That was the major factors that differentiate Starbucks from others and bring the successful to Starbucks.