Manage Quality Customer Service Essay

DESCRIPTION OF THE ORGANISATION Telstra Corporation Limited is a Public Company that is ranked number 9 out of the top 2000 companies in Australia stated on Ibis World a Business reporting site (World, Ibis, 2011). The company generates the majority of its income from the Telecommunication Services in Australia industry. Telstra has employed 39,790 people by June, there end of Financial Year 2011. Since 2009 its current CEO, is David Thodey. (Telstra, 2011) The name â€Å"Telstra† is derived from the word Telecommunication Australia. The (TEL) is from Telecommunication and (STRA) from Australia. The creation of this name was trading under â€Å"Telecom Australia† domestically until a constant branding of â€Å"Telstra† was introduced throughout the entire organisation in 1995. (About Telstra Fast Facts,2011). Business Operations †¢ Book and Telephone Directory Publishing in Australia Telecommunications and Other Electrical and Electronic Equipment Wholesaling in Australia Telecommunication Services in Australia Wired Telecommunications Carriers in Australia Mobile Telecommunications Carriers in Australia Internet Service Providers in Australia Online Information Services in Australia Telstra’s Business Units †¢ Telstra Consumer including Country services the metropolitan, regional, rural and remote areas of Australia. It provides telecommunications products and services, for home and mobile phones and devices, to fixed and wireless internet as well as Pay TV services. †¢ Telstra Enterprise & Government (TE&G) is the leading provider of network solutions and services to Enterprise and Governments in Australia. †¢ Telstra Business is another division responsible for serving the needs of Australia’s small to medium enterprises (SME) with fixed phone line, mobile and broadband. Data and Internet solutions can be tailored for business. IDENTIFY THE TARGET CUSTOMER Age of Customer Age Group 55+ 35-44 25-34 45-54 8-24 Customers 2008/09 9.9% 30.6% 23.9% 25.7% 9.8% 2009/10 11.1% 30.5% 24.3% 25.9% 8.2% 2010/11 12.0% 29.9% 24.4% 26.3% 7.4% Telstra provide products and services to Home and Family (residential), Businesses, Government and Wholesale customers. This also includes a Disability Equipment Program for people with a disability and Access for everyone packages for people on a low income. The chart found in a Telstra Sustainability Report (Davies, Paul; Migonneau, Bastein, 2011) shows the percentage of different aged group customers that have been connected with Telstra. Source: (Davies, Paul; Migonneau, Bastein, 2011) KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS Key performance indicators (KPIs) are ways to periodically assess the performances of organisations, business units, and their departments and employees. They measure the process through a SMART criterion by Specific – Measurable – Achievable – Relevant – Time. Monitoring KPI as a whole and through staff performance The Call Centre Activity chart shows the percentage of customers that called and counts for each action that can occur once a call has been queued to a call centre. This is one form of measuring call centre KPI. People must learn to work together, ask for help, training etc. and understand how to relate to one another otherwise the team’s output will be less than it could be. This Call Centre chart generated a report that includes statistics relating to one call centers. The chart report provides information related to how calls are handled by call centers once they have been queued. Successful leaders care for and support colleagues and employees. Treating people with respect, demonstrating integrity, and showing empathy strengthen the development of trust and confidence in the workplace. In order to make your teamwork on their set goals, performance and meet KPI you must demonstrate that you are reliable, honest, and trustworthy and that you walk your talk. They need to see your values in action and that you have their best interests at heart. They need to see that you value openness and  honesty in offering and receiving feedback. SERVICE TARGETS As technology has grown, so has the ease by which information can be generated and presented to management and stakeholders. Today, everyone seems concerned about information overload, From my thorough investigations online I can report that service targets are reported quarterly to identify opportunities for improvement and outline progress of achievement and adjustments if needed are also made at this point. The most informative reports I found online from 2010-2012 on Telstra are: †¢ Financial Results for Half Year ended 31 December 2011 †¢ Telstra Corporation Limited and controlled entities and †¢ Telstra Sustainability Report 2011 They all outline the results of Telstra’s performance, goals and statistics in achieving their customer service/product commitments. When organisations constantly review their service delivery, they gather an enormous amount of data. The data collected is important and crucial to the ongoing survival of the organisation and therefore it must be recorded, maintained and be accessible. The financial report â€Å"Financial Results for Half Year ended 31 December 2011† (Laird, Jason; McKechnie, Nicole, 2012) presented by David Thodey CEO & acting CFO Mark Hall has been published and reports that Telstra announced its strategy continues to deliver financial benefits. Report Statistics & Targets for 2012 Business revenue results discussed by the Directors from Telstra’s â€Å"Financial report half year ended 31 December’ 2011† (Laird, Jason; McKechnie, Nicole ;, 2012) are as follows: †¢ Total revenue increased by -1.1% or $136 million  to $12,419 million †¢ Net Profit After Tax increased by -22.9% or $274 million to $1,468 million In relation to the 2011 Sustainability Report (Davies, Paul; Migonneau, Bastein, 2011) Telstra believes that monitoring, measuring and reporting their progress helps them to improve on their service performance and lists this in figure 3. Figure 3 Telstra’s Values & Priorities For 2012 Source:(Davies, Paul; Migonneau, Bastein, 2011) FEEDBACK ON STAFF PERFORMANCE Telstra’s performance review process incorporates two informal quarterly reviews and a formal annual and half yearly review, targeting business results and leadership. Each team and section of Telstra has reward and recognition schemes in place to reward and encourage top performers. Telstra has a variety of incentive plans, tailored to different sectors of their workforce, which is designed to encourage high performance by rewarding employees for meeting and exceeding performance objectives. Another way of accessing performance is by collating data on customer’s feedback about the individual consultant. All results can be produced through a team email, meeting or coaching. Obtaining a 360-degree feedback will be most valuable in assessing their strengths and weaknesses. The 360degree should be performed and completed by their manager and up to five of their peers with whom they work. This assessment will let the business and employer know what people they work with think about their attitude, performance, and business ethics. Performance Appraisals Determines: †¢ Rewards and/or promotions for an individual who is meeting /exceeding performance †¢ Identify and discuss gaps in skills, knowledge and attitudes that impact on an individual’s performance †¢ Identify and discuss environmental or workplace weaknesses preventing the individual from meeting their goals and objectives and †¢ Identifies an individual’s future training and development needs Most staff members will expect that they will be  required to give feedback at the end of their appraisal. What is important is team members are made to feel that management will actually take notice of their feedback and use it to coach and make any improvements. Live Performance Monitoring I have provided a sample bar chart below from when I worked at Telstra. The chart displays how a team’s Adherence on calls is monitored by the sales teams. As you see the amount of calls answered is the first column which is then followed by the activities that one undertakes while on that call. The red highlighted boxes indicate improvement is required as the KPI target for AHT is 630min and Adherence is 88% while your wrap should be the lowest possible as this is when the call has ended and your phone is sitting in Not Ready status, the key here is finish what you are doing while customer is on the phone & be in READY status for the next call. This Report is also part of the scorecard paying system to calculate any sales bonus Figure 4 Activity Chart Sales Call Centre KPI Targets AHT: 630 Adherence: 88% Source:( Pusca, et al., 2012) Figure 4 shown in this report is my own collection of statistical results I obtained when working at Telstra in 2011/2012. The results are solely only for the purpose of this assignment. Names of Staff members have intentionally been removed for privacy STRATEGIES TO ADAPT CUSTOMER SERVICE The only measure that will connect a business with the relevance of the work a staff member is performing is to find out if customers are happy or not with their service. You need to measure how the customer judges the outcome of the product or service, through a phone or email survey at the end of each business discussion. Telstra have this process in place. The process is completed by asking the customer to stay on the line while at the end of the call while you transfer them through to a questioner/ survey about your performance today. The rating is from 1 (lowest) & 5 (highest) then next they will be ask to provide any feedback. Statistics can be taken via the login of the consultant’s phone that produces a per cent % on how many customers were transferred to the questioner /survey. Customer Survey Satisfaction Result Telstra’s Customer Support Services is also launching an initiative to revisit the handling and processing of customer requests for prompt reliable services and assistance. For the past few years, Telstra have proactively been monitoring the â€Å"First Contact Resolution† (FCR) metric as a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) of 80%. This is a ‘voice of the customer’ driven strategy – reported in a Corporate Responsibility Report (Inc, 2012) we are doing a lot more listening. We are implementing tools and processes that allow us to clearly understand and fix main points for our customers states David Thodey CEO. As well as the phone interaction customers have with staff Telstra has established a new online panel – My Telstra Experience – so that customers can regularly tell them what they think of their experiences and where they need to improve on service. 2 Figure 5 Compliance MTD1F Increase FCR Staff Must: †¢ Set the right expectation to the customer about the call (how long it takes to process the order, keep the customer in the loop) †¢ Follow the correct hold procedure (set the expectation on how long they may need to wait) †¢ To reduce repeat calls within 7 days by giving the right contact numbers to customers i.e. for any IT Support or Bigpond enquiries– please give out the correct number, that way in will not affect your FCR. †¢ When transferring, give the customer the number for the department you are transferring them to. Encourage customers to call the number provided for future reference or in case, the call drops out. SOURCE : (Dave, 2012) Remember to ask – Can you please stay on the line to answer 2 questions regarding my customer service today? FEEDBACK TO MANAGEMENT ON MEETING/EXCEEDING KPI’S Within a call center, there are common business roles. There is Centre Managers for each department, Team Leaders, and Agents. †¢ The Centre Manager will have a number of Team Leaders reporting to them. They will be responsible for the recruitment, development and coaching of those who directly report to them. The Team Leader’s role is to ensure individual agents are performing against targets, reviewing their performance and coaching/training them to do so. The Team Leaders will meet on a regular basis with the Centre Manager to provide feedback and to receive instructions or actions that need to take place. The Team Leader is responsible for keeping their agents informed of what is happening in the centre and anything that may affect the agent’s key tasks or performance targets. It is good management practice to consult and reflect on employees and other managers for feedback on a regular basis. Feedback allows one to gain input from others including, praise, criticism and suggestions for improvement. The Report Providing Performance feedback to Management when their team has achieved KPI is an extraordinary accomplishment. Feedback is backed up with reports and they can include: †¢ Documentation of expected results †¢ Standards of performance †¢ Progress toward achieving of results †¢ How well they were achieved †¢ Examples indicating achievement A report outlines the performance of team and individual staff members and how they have progressed since the last monthly/quarterly report. It will also show a comparison of whether they have improved or dropped in performance and if any training is required to fill gaps. Figure 6 shown in this report is my own collection of statistical results I obtained when working at Telstra in 2011/2012. The results are solely only for the purpose of this assignment. The names of staff members have been removed for privacy A GAP ANALYSIS ON CUSTOMER SERVICE MEASURES The following performance reporting covers the 2011 financial year for Telstra Corporation Limited (Thodey, David; Hall, Mark, 2011). In 2012, Telstra continue to focus on simplifying their business and improving their processes in order to better serve its customers. Telstra’s Primary Goals: †¢ †¢Serve the needs of its customers Improving online services & support Make Telstra a great place to work Reduce Telstra’s TIO complaints Contribute resources – people, money, technology, products, and services To support the communities Strengthen the capability of the nation’s telecommunications infrastructure, and providing a strong foundation for economic growth, productivity improvement, and global competitive advantage. Service Goals Figure 7 Gap Analysis Actual Performance 2011 6.8% Target as of June 2012 7.1% Gap Analysis Corrective Action 1. Customer Satisfaction 2. Improving online service 3. Telstra a great place to work 4. Reduce Telstra’s TIO complaints 5. To support the communities 6. Economic growth Success 0.3% Failed 13% Failed 0% Failed 6% Failed 21% Success 0.7% Listen to customers, undertake a cause analysis when issues arise, & fixing the areas that customers are not happy with i.e. pricing Improved online access for account enquiries on mobile phones & customers to easily manage their account online Launched a new reward & recognition program to recognise individuals & teams Conducted a review of system operations to ensure that privacy of customer information continues to be protected Provide communication technology training through grants, events, online content and DVDs They engage more with community organisations on issues impacting the lives of children and young people 22% 75% 24% 44,000 people $24.80 million 35% 76% 30% 80, 000 people $25,06 million Source: (CSG, Customer Service Guarantee) 1. Telstra reached a 3% per cent improvement in customer satisfaction. Their approach is to be able to connect with the customer, understand and exceed their expectations, respond to and solve customer complaints and fulfil expectations 2. Improving online services and encouraging customers to go online will help reduce call centre call queue and visiting Telstra stores. This should have enhanced the customer experience. Telstra failed by 13% of online customer interaction with staff. 3. In 2012 Telstra’s goal was to  Improved development performance by 1%, they failed 4. The Telecommunications industry Ombudsman (TIO) records complaint issues under several broad categories. Telstra had set a target to reduce TIO complaints by 30% in 2012 though failed by 6% 5. In 2010/11, the total value of Telstra’s social investment was $248 million. Increased numbers of people to be trained to know how to use mobile, internet etc. was set from 44,000 to 62,447. Telstra failed by 21 % 6. A key driver to the increase has also been the focus on improving customer service through investments made to improve the customer experience including improvements to the online Telstra portal and the implementation of the after hours customer service line. CONCLUSION Telstra is Australia’s leading full service telecommunications and information services company. It offers a wide range of fixed and mobile telecommunications, and information products and services across Australia and overseas. Telstra uses its own network infrastructure. In addition, Telstra provides wholesale services to other telecommunications retailers, who then provide services, including voice, broadband and data services, to their own end user customers. Over the past year Telstra has recorded a turnaround in operational results, with strong customer growth. While not meeting majority of their targets, this year’s 2012 achievements must demonstrate real progress against their Service Goals. Telstra still have significant improvements to make and have set targets to improve their Service. In recent years, customer satisfaction in Australian telecommunications has failed to keep up with community expectations and consumers have responded with increasing complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO). Customer Service is an essential factor in maintaining an organisation’s competitive edge in the marketplace. Many organisations are placing greater emphasis on developing a customer service culture and making it a priority. At the end of the day it is the people in the center who are the real influence on customers not the technology or the processes. A company can  have great products, great services, great technology and great processes, but it’s the people that bring it together and make it happen. To establish the right service quality standards is what Telstra need to bring into place. The following points list some standards I had not come across or not been mentioned by Telstra as one of their focuses for improvement †¢ †¢Top management commitment to providing service quality Set, communicate, and reinforce customer-oriented service standards Establish challenging and realistic service quality goals Train managers to be service quality leaders Be receptive to new ways to deliver service quality Standardise repetitive tasks Telstra recorded a 3 per cent improvement in customer satisfaction in 2011/2012, with a reduction in TIO complaints however did not meet the target and failed by 6 per cent they had set out to achieve. To attract and retain customers a business needs to recognise different customers want different things, and they need to provide products, solutions and service to cater to this. To differentiate themselves from their competitors, a business will benefit if they can demonstrate that they can provide the understanding and experience customers are seeking. Overall, the company is a dominant player and for the last five fiscal (financial) years of 2007 to 2011, continued to make up around 60% of the whole Australian communications services market. The significantly improved growth in customers returning to Telstra is tribute to the value in the company’s new mobile plans as well as their network quality. Telstra will continue to roll-out new products for all our customers, from individual to Corporate and Government customers, taking into consideration the feedback of what their customers have told them. They are committed to upholding the legislated Telecommunications Customer Service Guarantee Standard 2011 (â€Å"The CSG Standard†), as amended and issued by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (Thodey, David; Hall, Mark, 2011) The objective of the Customer Service Guarantee is to impose a minimum level of performance on telecommunications carriers and service providers, for specified services, so that the quality of that service should not deteriorate in any way but will improve significantly and should enable consumers to enjoy a reasonable level of service. (ACA, 1999)

Previous knowledge of the novel Essay

From your reading of Chapters 1, 2 and 26 of â€Å"Jane Eyre†, as well as any previous knowledge of the novel you might have, write about the links you begin to see between that text and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper†. â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† was written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1892 for a number of specific purposes, including the author’s desire to raise awareness of the condition post-partum depression, from which she suffered, and to illustrate her views on the patriarchal nature and the inequality of Victorian society, particularly with relation to marriage. Perhaps most importantly, Gilman wanted to expose the flaws in the male treatments propositioned for post-partum depression and other similar conditions; treatments from which she herself ailed even more than from her ‘nervous disorder’ when waylaid in bed, much like the narrator of her novella – albeit to a less extreme end. By contrast, Charlotte Bronti ‘s â€Å"Jane Eyre† has no such definite intentions, but acts most prominently as a bildungsroman and a partial autobiography, which leads to a very different treatment of characters as constructs rather than as Gilman’s use of them as representations. While Bronti ‘s characters in â€Å"Jane Eyre† cannot be labelled with much more precision than Mr. Rochester’s standing as a Byronic hero, the characters in â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† are clearly intended for various purposes. The most obvious examples are John, the narrator’s husband, who embodies the Victorian male and the Victorian physician, and the narrator herself, who is intended to represent all of womankind subjected to the aforementioned Victorian male doctor. A commonality between the two novels exists in their inclusion of characters exhibiting madness. There can be drawn many similarities between the two differing presentations, including an obvious physical manifestation of insanity. In â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper†, as the narrator falls into madness – and particularly at the end of the novel when she has succumbed to it entirely – Gilman depicts her ‘creeping by daylight’ about her room, ‘crawling’ on the floor, ’round and round and round’, after having the narrator herself earlier assert that ‘most women do not creep by daylight’, therefore proleptically implying something abnormal about herself. In â€Å"Jane Eyre†, this same physicality is used by Bronti in her presentation of Bertha Mason Rochester, as she is first introduced to Jane and to the readers ‘on all fours†¦ like some strange wild animal’. Bertha is said to have ‘snatched and growled’, and ‘laid her teeth to [Mr. Rochester’s] neck’, which is an animalistic image also shown by Gilman when she has her narrator say she ‘bit off a little piece’ of her bed. Both authors are in this way very deliberate in creating the metaphor of their insane characters being animals; Bronti refers to Bertha through her narrator Jane as a ‘beast’, a ‘wild animal’ and a ‘clothed hyena’, and besides these more obvious physical links, there are also allusions to hair ‘wild as a mane’, ‘a fierce cry’, an instance in which the woman ‘bellowed’, and her ‘stature almost equalling her husband’, who is built athletically, so this comparison therefore reinforces Bronti ‘s presentation of Bertha as something of a behemoth – her name even bears a visual similarity to the words ‘beast’ or ‘bear’. There are several other parallels discernable between Bronti ‘s Bertha and Gilman’s narrator, for example in â€Å"Jane Eyre† Bertha commits the mortal sin of suicide by jumping out of an upstairs window after burning down the house in her final act of freedom, while in â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper†, Gilman’s narrator is far more trapped than the character of Bertha, so she can only express a desire to ‘jump out of the window†¦ but the bars are too strong even to try’, and before that Gilman had had her narrator state: ‘I thought seriously of burning the house – to reach the smell’. Both identical actions are used by the two authors to illustrate their characters’ insanity and an implicit breaking down of social norms; and especially a desire for suicide that goes against the core of human nature in our intrinsic survival instinct, which was a deviation seen before in the presentation of the two women as animals rather than human beings. Bertha is referred to by Bronti through Jane Eyre as an ‘it’, solidifying this idea of her insanity rendering her inhuman. However, the marked difference between the protagonist of â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† and one of the antagonists of â€Å"Jane Eyre† is indeed the fact that Bertha has the freedom to carry out her insane thoughts, while Gilman has created in her novella such an image of imprisonment that her own character fails to complete either undertaking. This idea is crucial to Gilman’s message of women’s entrapment in a Victorian patriarchal society, and therefore contributes to the novella’s effectiveness. On the other hand, since â€Å"Jane Eyre† was not written with such a definite intention as â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper†, the actions of Bertha are designed to contribute to the plot of the novel more than to convey a message about the treatment of women, the mentally insane or the handicapped, though the latter readings could also be taken. A more obvious difference between the two novels is that it is the autodiegetic narrator we can assume to be called Jane of â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† that exhibits insanity, thereby directly demonstrating to the reader the lack of cohesion in her mind, while in â€Å"Jane Eyre† Bertha’s insanity is regarded by the readers through the eyes of Bronti ‘s eponymous narrator. Additionally, while the reader experiences the breakdown of the narrator’s mind from sanity to its loss in the former text, in the latter the only experience given to the reader of Bertha is of her already mentally degraded, with no transformation shown, and little information given about her prior to the exhibition of her allegedly genetic insanity. Bronti emphasises the fact that the reader is not given the whole story of her character Bertha through the interesting manipulation of her narrator. Despite the fact that Jane Eyre is an autodiegetic narrator, the same as that of â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper†, in the scene in which she is presented with Bertha, and indeed in ensuing scenes featuring Mr. Rochester’s first wife, Jane Eyre becomes more of a homodiegetic narrator – simply conveying the events before her but clearly on the edges of a much deeper story and a more extensive narrative than she has the ability or knowledge to recount.

Does a Revolution Always Have to Include Terror Essay

The radical leader of the Committee of Public Safety, Robespierre had fanatic and opinionated ideas and beliefs that made him a passionate leader. He believes that to safely go through the stormy revolution, the people’s behavior should be regulated by stormy circumstances, and their plans should be based on the combination of the spirit of revolutionary government and democracy. Virtue, the â€Å"fundamental principle of the democratic government,† was a strong factor of his viewpoint. He thinks that if there is no virtue in the government, then the people’s virtue can be a source, but when the people are corrupted too, there is no chance of winning liberty. These ideas did no harm; they were beneficial and very true. However, he also had radical ideas that were appalling and that weren’t necessarily correct. In his opinion, the people should be lead by reason and the people’s enemies by terror. Robespierre also mentions that a popular government in revolution evolves from virtue and terror. This is his outlook on virtue and terror: â€Å"virtue, without terror is fatal; terror, without which virtue is powerless.† He says, â€Å"the characteristic of popular government is confidence in the people and severity towards itself.† In other words, the popular government has to have confidence in the people and be strict and severe with itself. According to him, terror is the principle of despotic government and he thinks that because of this, the despot may govern by terror his brutalized subjects and subdue by terror the enemies of liberty. Even though these are only his opinions, his perspectives on the use of terror and ruthlessness led him to cause the Reign of Terror and ultimately led him to his execution on July 28, 1794. A revolution doesn’t necessarily have to include terror and the popular government does not have to be ruthless to its people, because then the revolutionaries may lose their supporters (or they may even revolt) and the radicals might have to face more enemies. This was true, because Robespierre’s former followers had him arrested and executed, and the day after the execution, everyone felt relieved. The famous radical leader’s attributes and beliefs led the country into terror and himself to his end.

Profits hit by rate rises Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Profits hit by rate rises - Essay Example The increase in the accumulation of inventories however reduces the GDP as firms tend to avoid the "overhang of unsold inventories" as mentioned in the article. As real GDP converges to equilibrium i.e. aggregate planned expenditure starts to match real GDP, than the inventories of the firm start to draw down. If we take the scenario where inventories start to accumulate, a drift towards equilibrium would suggest that the planned expenditure exceeds real GDP hence in order to adjust the planned expenditure in line with the real GDP, inventories will start to reduce As discussed above, there are two components of aggregate expenditure i.e. autonomous expenditure and induced expenditures. Autonomous, investments, exports expenditure include government spending as well as autonomous consumption. The induced expenditure most involves private consumption including imports, savings, consumer expenditure etc. The autonomous expenditure does not vary with the changes in the real GDP therefore there is a very little impact of interest rises on this type of expenditure in short run. However, induced expenditure gets affected by the series of rises in interest rates.

Differentiating for Learning Profile Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Differentiating for Learning Profile - Essay Example Also, other ways include verbalizing the content, creating logical understanding, kinesthetic understanding, interpersonal understanding, intrapersonal understanding and, finally, naturalizing the content (Mulligan, 2005). These are just some of the broad ways students can be grouped in classes. With regards to students who understand the content through creating rhythms, educators should encourage them to sing what they are taught or create a beat about the content (Mulligan, 2005). Also, creating cheers, jingles and humming sounds will enable a student to remember what he or she was taught. Students who understand what they are taught through verbalizing the content could be encouraged to read it, spell the content, write it and listen to content. Students who, on the other hand, understand the content through visualizing it should be offered graphic organizers, color codes, videos or charts in order to understand the content fully. Students who kinesthetically understand things sh ould be encouraged to role-play the content (Mulligan, 2005). This is through assuming that the student is, in fact, the content being discussed. Finally, a student who understands the content through naturalizing it should label the content. They should also categorize the content and identify it (Mulligan, 2005). ... Others speak English as a second language while some may be talented and gifted. Still others might struggle with mental, physical, emotional or behavioral challenges. It is, therefore, vital to plan a classroom that can incorporate all these types of students (Rose & Meyer, 2006). In order for educators to create a classroom that incorporates all types of students, it is essential for them to use interactive whiteboards in their classrooms. Interactive whiteboards are specially designed to engage a broad variety of learners in the learning process. Interactive whiteboards support all of the three principles and philosophies of universal learning (Rose & Meyer, 2006). Interactive whiteboards offer teachers or educators numerous ways of presenting information, to their students, using interactive images, text, video files and sound and, hence, engage a wide range of learners. Students or learners can use the same elements of the product to reveal their understanding of the content. To uch-sensitive boards particularly offer numerous options for interacting with displayed content, including finger, pen tool and other object (Rose & Meyer, 2006). Furthermore, interactive whiteboards captivate students of the digital age. This is because interactive whiteboards increase a student’s time and access to digital resources. This technique ensures that students, no matter the duration of the lesson, understand everything that is taught. This is because it offers all the techniques that diverse students use in understanding (Rose & Meyer, 2006). Furthermore, interactive whiteboards will assist students understand matters even better as it used all the techniques of teaching. Question 3 Educators recognize

Islamic and conventional credit cards Assignment - 1

Islamic and conventional credit cards - Assignment Example The increased demand is not only from clients need for differentiated products but also from corporations who want to carry out all financial dealings in conformity with Sharia laws. The increasing populations of Muslim countries will additionally propel the demand for Sharia - compliant financial services. Many Muslim nations have young populaces, with more than 60% of the citizens under the age of 21 years, in addition to annual population growth rates of more than 5%. Many conservative banks currently are also engaging in the Islamic Banking market due to its intrinsic feature of minimal exposure to operational risk. Islamic banking, because of its strict Sharia submission norms, can help clients decrease the risks related to interest based debt bankrolling that plagued conservative banks especially during the recent financial crisis that hit the mortgage market. In terms of supply, the main underlying principle of development in Islamic banking is the swelling amount of financial services establishments giving Sharia compliant business solutions. Along with the new Islamic banking institutions that are being designed, there is a developing tendency among current conventional banking institutions to transform their processes to become compliant with Sharia laws. With mounting business rivalries in their home markets, some Islamic banking institutions in the Middle East have begun to multiply globally, with a preliminary attention to Africa and Asia. This amplified rivalry was leading to fresh advanced products being availed to the markets, therefore, rendering Islamic banking more enticing. The initial phases of growth in Islamic banking contend with the concept construction where Sharia specialists examined whether the interest those banks charged was similar to riba. Before 1950s, Muslims were not officially engaging the banking services; so, they did not have any information about bank interest (Shaikh n.d). A few years

Using case law critically assess the concept of characteristic Essay

Using case law critically assess the concept of characteristic performance in Article 4(2) of the Rome Convention (Rome 1) - Essay Example ution of the terms of the contract which is the main feature of the contract , has , at the juncture of signing the contract , characteristic performance will be decided with his routine domicile, or ,in the case of a company or any incorporated body , its head administration office. Nonetheless, if the contract is carried mainly in the ordinary course of their profession or trade, then the country shall be the country where the chief place of business is located or as per the terms of the contract, the execution of the contract is to be carried out from a place of business instead of chief place of business, the country in which the other kind of business is located.† Article 4(5) of the Rome Convention provides an exception to the rule 4(2). It provides that Article 4(2) will not be applicable if the distinguishing feature cannot be evaluated, and the assumption in the paragraph 2 shall be overlooked if it seems from the background in its entirety that the contract is more intimately linked with another nation. It is to be observed that Rome 1 varies from the Rome Convention as regards to the contract of carriage. In general parlance, the complicated and supple system under the Convention has been replaced by a system with a stern choice of law regulation and with a thin escape clause in Rome I. Where the parties have not consented on the place of delivery, the applicable law under Rome 1 will be, it is advocated, to be concluded under Article 4(2), where the nearest connection litmus test would be extended under the convention. Rome 1 which offers a selection of the law system for contracts of carriages with certainty at the cost of flexibility offered under the Convention. (Ferrari & Ferrari 2009:108). Article 4(2) of the Rome I Regulation uses the stipulation of â€Å"characteristic performance, â€Å"stating that: â€Å"Where the features of the contract would be covered by more than one of the points detailed in (a) to (h) of paragraph or the contract is not

Political system of saudi arabia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Political system of saudi arabia - Essay Example This is all about making judgments in areas of disagreements between religious and supreme interests. In addition to that, the King keeps the tribes together, since there is a tribal structure in the state of Saudi Arabia. The Royal Family has the power to overthrow the king, supposedly. In 2005, the succession of the throne by King Abdullah progressed without any disturbances; just it has been same in the past (Maik et al 3). Recently, King Abdul-Aziz has put in place the rules for the succession by selecting an heir for the post of crown prince and deputy Prime minister. Saudi kings have also fixed a second deputy prime minister, who is next in turn on the unofficial succession line- up, since 1975, in order to maintain their control on the succession progression. Typically, the successors are the sons of the founder of Saudi-Arabia. Usually, the eldest brother is the new king while the second eldest brother, becomes crown prince. The Saudi Arabian Government The crowned king is th e main foundation of power in Saudi Arabian government while other senior princes enjoy immense authority and extensive liberty of action. Though, in practice the King’s powers are restricted and are achieved by consensus. The King has a responsibility to observe Islamic law and other country traditions at all the times. Saudi Arabia has also a heritage of decision making through consultation.

Search Engine Advertising Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Search Engine Advertising - Essay Example Written language is a powerful tool for expressing ideas and feelings when used correctly and to the right audience. The ambiguity of spoken word is one of the reasons behind the development of text theory. The main aim of text theory is to engrave systems of unambiguous rules which put across the association between connotation and text in various languages. Text theory, therefore, seeks to ensure that written word is free of ambiguity and well understood by the audience. Online advertising relies majorly on the written word. It is therefore important to ensure that these advertisements are rational especially to the persons who will be privileged to read them. Companies should, therefore, take the keen interest in the text that conveys advertisement message on the internet (Hollis 2005). Question two Affiliate programs refer to planning between an online merchant website and associated web sites that enable the later to accept traffic from the merchant web sites for a fee. Links are normally posted by the associated websites and payments are made depending on agreed terms and conditions. In most cases, the contract is based on factors such as the number of persons the associate web site transfers to the merchant site. Other agreements may involve payments depending on the number of persons that pay a visit to the web page that has the merchant website advertisement poster. This is fundamental especially for upcoming companies that want to grow the business at a faster rate.... This is fundamental especially for upcoming companies that want to grow business at a faster rate. Written language is a powerful tool for expressing ideas and feelings when used correctly and to the right audience. Ambiguity of spoken word is one of the reasons behind the development of text theory. The main aim of text theory is to engrave systems of unambiguous rules which put across the association between connotation and text in various languages. Text theory therefore seeks to ensure that written word is free of ambiguity and well understood by the audience. Online advertising relies majorly on the written word. It is therefore important to ensure that these advertisements are rational especially to the persons who will be privileged to read them. Companies should therefore take keen interest on the text that conveys advertisement message on the internet (Hollis 2005). Question two Affiliate programs refers to planning between an online merchant website and associate web sites that enables the later to accept traffic from the merchant web sites for a fee. Links are normally posted by the associate websites and payments are made depending on agreed terms and conditions. In most cases the contract is based on factors such as the number of persons the associate web site transfers to the merchant site. Other agreements may involve payments depending on the number of persons that pay a visit to the web page that has the merchant website advertisement poster. Ideally, when a hyperlink on an associate website earns the merchant site finance or popularity, it is the duty of the merchant site to make payments to the associate site as pertains to the contract (Evans 2009). Three parties are in most cases involved in an

Social policy and play Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Social policy and play - Essay Example There are some games universally played by children. Hide and seek which develops inquisitive nature and curiosity in the minds of the children and Police-thief games which is about battle between good and evil are popular among children in different forms of the game. ‘Play’ goes a long way in cultivating good habits, manners and behaviors in a person. Perspectives of Childhood The perspective of childhood is viewed from futuristic angle, ignoring the conditions, needs and changes required from the current perspective. Lesser and Russell stated â€Å"There has been a rapid growth in policy initiatives relating to children and young people and this has been dominated by a perspective which sees children primarily in terms of their and the nation’s future and not in terms of their present lives.† Childhood should not be viewed merely as a ground for preparing them for adulthood. The society tries to intervene in the process with the understanding that the fr amework is set with reference to learning, good habits, behaviors and manners in socializing. Health consciousness is also considered in this framework. However, we need to treat that opportunity to play is ‘childhood right’ though there are the attendant benefits and adult hood is related to childhood. According to Lee (2) â€Å"Whatever differences there may be between adults and children, contemporary sociologies of childhood urge that children be treated equally, at least in terms of recognizing that children have views and perspectives of their own.† The aspect of empowerment to the children is another important perspective. According to Alexander (10) empowerment, â€Å"is what bridges children’s wellbeing, children’s primary education and children’s rights. Empowerment - underpinned, as our child witnesses insist, by equity, empathy and expertise - is an educational cause well worth fighting for.† Social Policy Relating to Child hood â€Å"Alcock (2003) proposes a definition of social policy which suggests that it comprises both academic discipline and also a form of social action.† (Shardlow (14) Children believe they have the talents and courage to become kings. This belief which remains unspoiled till adulthood made many college drop-out students to establish great business empires in history. On the other hand, the seeds of evil take deep roots in their minds due to child abuse or discrimination manifest as cheating, fraud and terrorism in later years.   Study by Henn et al (1160) â€Å"revealed profound differences in the likelihood of criminal convictions or incarcerations between socialized and under socialized delinquents. The socialized delinquents have less chance of being either convicted of a crime or being imprisoned.† Shaping up at 5 is easier than reshaping up at 50. According to Hallett and Prout (83) children have been accorded a central role, both in creation of modern soci ety and the autonomous individual and observed that the contemporary thinking and activities of the associations in child welfare confirm this trend. Play is an important part of children and youngsters. Sutton-Smith views ‘

God's Word- What does the bible really teaches Research Paper

God's Word- What does the bible really teaches - Research Paper Example The present paper looks for investigating into the phenomenon in the light of Christian teachings manifestly elucidated in the Scripture, along with explaining the same according to the traditions attributed to the Christian saints and scholars. The paper also aims to explain the meaning and status of death in Christian faith, which is the only way to meet their Creator as well as the holiest personalities and one’s forefathers had already entered in the world hereafter. The paper also explains in brief the difference in the concept of death in non-Christian faiths, and subject of incarnation according to death. The paper also elaborates the significance of death for the Christian community, and its changing status in the contemporary era. Death serves as one of the bitterest realities of life due to the very fact all human beings including rich and poor, pious and wicked, strong and weak, black and white, and male and female have to taste it one day determined by the Lord. Consequently, no one is immortal altogether in the world except Lord God, the Creator of heavens and hell, Who has created day and night, and life and death. In the words of the Genesis (7:21): â€Å"and all flesh that stirred on earth perished – birds, cattle, beasts, and all the things that swarmed upon the earth, and all mankind.† Thus, the Holy Scripture ratifies the perishing of all the creatures existing on the earth including humans one appointed day, where humans will be reincarnated by the Lord on the Resurrection Day, and they will have to be answerable to what they had performed during their stay in the mortal world. In addition, death is also considered as the darkest reality of life because it separates man from his parents, children, relations and friends forever and ever, where no one could hear the voice of the departed soul till he also embraced death one day to join the dead ones in the next world. Hence, the moment of death serves as the most painful and agonized

A Website Review on the American Cultural History 1960-1969 Webpage Essay Example for Free

A Website Review on the American Cultural History 1960-1969 Webpage Essay Kingwood College Librarys American Cultural History 1960-1969 webpage (http://kclibrary. nhmccd. edu/decade60. html) is a webpage dedicated to the dessemination of information regarding the 1960s. It dubs itself a web and library guide, and is hosted and managed by the Kingwood College Library, an educational organization in Kingwood, Texas. Its stated purpose is to â€Å"help the user gain a broad understanding and appreciation for the culture and history of the 1960s† (Goodwin, para. 2). The site itself is authored by Susan Goodwin. Unfortunately, no information in the site listed Ms. Goodwins credentials, and checking the Kingwood College Library for any information regarding the author proved futile as well. The webpage is primarily aimed for the general public, with information that is collected and compiled from different sources which are mostly official or scholarly in nature (some information, however, are linked from Wikipedia, a source generally not accepted by the academia). As such, the information can be considered valid and true, and is presented clearly and matter-of-factly, without any embellishments or personal views and opinions, and without any technical jargon that may confuse the lay reader. At the start of the page, the reader is immediately treated to a fact sheet of the decade, with hard facts about the population, the national debt, and the average salary, among others. Information is also placed in major categories, providing a coherent and easy to follow structure to the whole article. Since content is generally collected from the various sites off the internet and books, information and content ranges from the common to the not-so-common, but all are generally interesting and well-presented. Most of the major points are presented as links which redirect to another website discussing that particular subject matter. This is where most of the webpages problems lie, as a significant number of links (25, to be exact) are either broken or non-existing, redirecting the reader to the main site instead. One of the links even redirects to the wrong article. For an information-driven webpage run by an educational organization, such mistakes reflect poorly on the structure and management of the webpage itself. Another thing some people (especially researchers wanting complete information) might have an issue with is how the webpage cites its sources. After every category, the author lists the books which have more information on the subjects presented in that category. However, the author did not list the specifics of the book, ie. , date of publication, author, actual page information, etc. For a researcher who needs these information, this is a great omission on a website that considers itself a bibliographic essay. Also, the website design can be improved; as it is, it is presented in a simple and drab manner. Inspite of the faults stated above, the webpage gives enough historical information and data for any general aspect of popular culture in the stated era. And with how it is presented, via links and redirects, the reader can just connect on other links on the given website for more information about that particular subject matter. The webpages goal is to give out as much information as it can, in a concise and direct manner. In this regard, it has succeeded rather well. References Goodwin, S. (2006). American Cultural History 1960-1969. Retrieved December 20, 2007, from http://kclibrary. nhmccd. edu/decade60. html

The Inherently Unsustainable Of Mass Tourism Tourism Essay

The Inherently Unsustainable Of Mass Tourism Tourism Essay Tourism Industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. Tourism has long been a central component of the economic, social and cultural shift that has left its imprint on the world system of cities in the past two decades (Dumond; 2005 cited in Beben; 2006;1). According to the statistics of World Trade Organization, there was 693 million tourist arrivals across the globe in 2002 (Beben; 2006). Moreover, WTO and the World Tourism and Travel Council announced a possible increase in the number of tourists to close to 1 billion by the end of 2010 (Massound; 2010). Mass tourism is seen as a large number of people participating in tourism as well as inflexible and packaged standardized holidays (Poon; 1993). Starting from the 50s a new tourist demand leaded to a new stage in this evolutionary process. Tourism industry just like other Fordist industries has been supplying mass products, mostly considered under the label of mass tourism (Conti; Perelli; 2004). According to Conti and Perelli (2004;3), Thomas Cook created the tourism packages in the 19th century as the pioneering forms of mass tourism and the opportunity for the definitive shift from the aristocratic forms of vacation to the mass mobility of workers spending their paid holidays travelling. The concept of Cookism was used in a place of Fordism to express the era of mass tourism. Others seen mass tourism as consuming places by the large number of visitors (Urry; 1995). More recently mass tourism consumption experience has been linked to the ideas of a McDonaldization, Disneyfication o r McDisneyfication of societies (Ritzer and Liska; 1997 cited in Conti and Perelli; 2004;3). The impact of those consumption patterns has been considered as the typical Fordist leading to a reduction of the cultural diversity by mean of the demand of a tourist experience that will be more and more reproducing the everyday life patterns of consumption (Contti and Perelli; 2004). Mass tourism is strongly linked to seasonality. The impact of schools closure for the holiday periods as well as companies ´ work programmes and the destination specific weather conditions, all that aspects are gathering great number of tourists at the same time (Shaw and Williams; 1995). Before tourism was a luxury, available mostly for higher class but after the introduction of packaged holidays and development of mobility and technology, travelling became more accessible for everyone. Tourism has aroused on the market as a forceful industry making changes which have both positive and negative economic, socio-cultural and environmental impacts. The development of tourism industry is very important for economy of the country especially for less developed countries as it increase foreign exchange earnings and generates employment. According to UNWTO, tourism stands for 8% of employment and 9% of global GDP and by the year 2019 will provide 296 million jobs (UNWTO cited in MercoPress, 2010). Tourism can have a powerful and beneficial direction for both economic and sociio-cultural change but at the same time it can be destroying. Do actual benefits from tourism go to the host community? Is government ´s priority in development are to provide the needs of the tourists instead of local community? The government blinded by the opportunity of the country to generate the money from the development tourism is forgetting about the negative aspects that the industry can bri ng. Most of the attention has been made to economic aspects of the tourism growth and environmental and socio-cultural issues have been swept out to the second plan. Although to make tourism sustainable it is very important to look at those aspects. As mentioned before tourism enables the development of the destination although, the lack of own capital and a weak economy of some underdeveloped destinations makes foreign investors to build a new hotels that makes tourism being beneficial mostly for the developed countries. The same is with employment. It seems like tourism would give jobs to the local community but in the meantime the investors from developed countries employed the workers with a better education and abilities so the developing country stays with almost nothing. When the development is lower than the position of a country is worse. Leakage is an amount of money that escapes from the local economy (France; 1997). According to Kripperdorf(1982;136), tourism planning is usually in the hands of outside promoters the local population are regarded merely as landowners or as a reserve of labour, not as people entitled to participate in decision making. For example, tour operators owning resorts and sending the customers to the destination which mean that local community wont benefit much from those tourists. They export food for the tourist and employ British stuff. How tourism can be sustainable if it ´s breaking the basic rules of it. The tourism control and planning strategy is crucial in developing sustainable tourism but how can it be done if even government is closing their eyes on the unfair practices in the Tourism sector of that region. The uncontrolled tourism in Goa has a strong impact on host community who has to face the food and water shortage (Almeida; 1996). Moreover, Goan has to face with electricity problems, there is a severe water shortage. The water pipeline that was originally meant for the villagers is now being utilised by the hotels. The transport too is insufficient to transport both locals and tourists (Misquita, 1996a cited in Noronha;1999;101). Very fast process of urbanisation has changed Goa into the concrete jungle. Police is closing their eyes on the drug fulfilled parties. Barely 10 % of Goans have benefited from tourism development, moreover, the foreign investors are buying large amounts of lands in the regi on (Almeida; 1996).All those examples illustrate how unsustainable tourism it is. Moreover, as suggested by Wall and Wright (1977); physical impacts to the tourist destination include alterations to the natural environment, including air, water, soils, vegetation and wildlife as well as changes to the build environment (Mathiesen and Wall; 1999; 38). Mass tourism affects strongly beaches, cliff-side, environment and degraded landscape. In some mass destinations ground water is in an alarmingly low level which is largely consumed by agricultural sector, by the irritation of a great number of gardens constructed due to the development of new summer houses and second homes and golf courses (Molz; 2004;5). Also the beaches have been extended in order to meet tourist demand. The unlimited constructions and unsustainable exploitation of natural resources will lead to the serious environmental problems. Recreational activities organized for tourists have also strong impact. Tourists by touching reefs when diving and snorkeling are damaging them. Also by the great number of boat trips tourist are disturbing marine animals. According to Kripperdorf (1982;135), the mass phenomena of modern tourism have initiated the paradoxial process Tourism destroys tourism. The landscape loses its tourist value through its use, or rather over-use, by th e tourist. Mass tourism is not only a problem of coastal regions but also the winter season is strongly connected to mass tourism. In Alps the number of tourists doubles every 7 years (Dziedzic; 1998). In Tyrol the ski slope is going through the endangered forests. Every year more than 500 hectares of agricultural land is used to make new skiing resorts and slopes (Dziedzic; 1998). Environmental degradation destroys the meaning of existence of tourism itself. The number of tourists is growing every year. According to the World Travel report (cited in Hickman; 2006) by 2020 the natural features of some of the wonders of the world will be damaged by global warming, while other resorts will become seriously overcrowded. The carrying capacity has been described as greatest number of people who can use the place without any damage to the natural resources and without degradation of the environment (Wall and Mathiasen; 1999). The attrition of historical buildings and the saturation of the coasts are one of the problems were carrying capacity has been overtaken. Changes in tourist destinations are inevitable but the concept of carrying capacity has the chance to indicate the amount and the way of change and to assess to which point those changes are acceptable (Mathiesen and Wall; 1999). The socio-cultural impacts are the other aspect of a great importance when looking at the changes in tourism as it strongly changes the way of life of the local communities. Mass tourism is causing displacement of indigenous population by tourists. For example in Hawaii there are about 1 million of indigenous inhabitants, which is a quarter of the whole population (Dziedzic; 1998). In human relationships, the disappearing traditional hospitality is a very important aspect. Especially in the big tourist resorts, these relations were long ago converted into a commodity for sale. Kuhn (2007; cited in Hanna; 2010 HHhhKKKK) argues that sustainable tourism attempts to preserve traditional cultures in a way that the western tourist deems as authentic. If sustainable tourism will lead into that direction it will not be very successful. Tourist resorts also offer its guests a more refined, but a fake version of its folklore and traditions, adapted to the stereotypical images of the visited country. According to Mathieson and Wall (1992; 4) the commercialization of culture, through the marketing and sale of artefacts, may revive traditional art forms or modify them so that they are scarcely recognizable. Which in a long term might create a phony folk culture but at the same moment it can lessen existing unemployment problems and create more jobs. The Tourism authorities are pleased of the fact that tourism is developing in the country but some of the local communities have different opinions on that. According to Ignacio Cembrero in View from Fez (2006), the countrys Islamist party frequently rails against hotel casinos, restaurants that serve alcohol and the growing gay club scene (Ranger; 2006). The tourist must accept the cultural differences of other countries. The most of Moroccans are very religious and tourist has to respect it. Even more tolerate Moroccans can become tired of tourists when seeing nudity on the beaches or tourists wearing t-shirts or short trousers in the churches. It insults their believes and rules. A lack of consideration by tourists for local norms, culture, people or the environment of tourist receiving destinations is leading to unsustainable tourism practices (Poon; 1993 in Wahab and Pigram; 2004;51). This point was also commented by Obrador et al (2009;3) who suggest that local cultures are see n as eroded by a homogenous inauthentic, consumer culture. Moreover, overcrowding and growth of the bad reputation of the destination by breaking ethical rules can be destructive for the destination. There are many places in the world which have been spoiled by mass tourism and after the development of low cost airlines many cities has lost their shine. As most of the products also destinations have a lifecycle. It was clearly presented by Butler (1980) in his model of lifecycle of a tourist destination. He evaluated six stages a destination goes through when tourism development takes place: exploration, involvement, development, consolidation, stagnation, concluding with either rejuvenation or decline. At this stage the destination is visited by small number of tourists who are keen to explore cultural and natural beauty of the place but the number of visitors is limited due to accessibility difficulties and lack of facilities. Here the attraction of the place yet remains unmodified by tourism. In the next stage of involvement advertising and local initiatives are seen as the element of promotion of the destination which results in increase of the tourist number with the pressure on the public sector to develop infrastructure. Next step in the cycle is development in which further initiatives for development of facilities are made by national and multinational companies. In this stage the control of the public sector is necessary as the popularity of the destination and increasing number of visitors may not only be the reason of success but also cause failure and the destination may suffer a change in quality through problems of over-use and deterioration of facilities (Butler; 198 0;92). The consolidation is the next level of tourism life cycle when tourism becomes a great part of the local community. Next step of stagnation occurs when after reaching peak numbers of visitors the destination is no longer popular and only conservative visitors are still coming back. In this stage the environmental, economical as well as socio-cultural problems can be seen as the reason. The last stage is decline where effort is need to maintain the tourist arrivals by introducing new types of facilities like for example casinos. Prague is only one of the examples of the life cycle destination. The city has become one of the most visited cities in Europe after Czech Republic became a member of EU and after the growth of mobility (Global Travel Industry News; 2010). This beautiful, full of historical monuments city was rejuvenated in the last two decades. The commercialization of the city took place and the old town became surrounded by souvenir vendors, Irish pubs and beer gardens losing its authenticity. Also the prices have gone up and all locals who couldn ´t afford been forced to move out of town. Its one of the examples when the way of making quick cash has prevailed over the unspoiled charm of the historic Prague. Mass tourism has led to the development of sustainable tourism in order to reduce negative impacts of tourism growth. Later in time the concept of Post Fordism was seen as the customers seem to acquire more power in determining market tendencies. According to Contti and Perelli (2004;9), this change also tend to meet the new demand for environmental friendly tourism products, being new tourists generally perceived as more educated, interested in local communities culture and in a real interaction with the surrounding environment. Since 1980 the sustainable tourism has began to be an important issue in the tourism industry (Swarbrooke; 1999). By creating a new infrastructure, hotels and businesses the employment is increasing. By travelling people have a chance to experience new cultures and traditions, although not every tourist is keen to do that and some visitors are not interested in it and ignore host communities. Sustainable tourism development is directed especially to create a better understanding of tourism, of how to achieve balance between economic, cultural and environmental aspects of tourism development. It is necessary to encourage people to take responsibility for the environment. Moreover, fair distribution of tourism benefits is necessary and the bigger involvement of local community in the tourism development decisions of their region has to be improved. The sustainable tourism directs to reduce negative impact on environment by introduction of quieter, more fuel efficient aircraft to start from to maximizing economic benefits for the host community rather than the visitors countries. Mass tourism is strongly connected to the high seasonal tourism caused by the great demand of 3s tourism tourists all over the world (Bramwell; 2004). That is why diversification of tourism like development of rural tourism has been developed to minimize saturation of the beaches in the high seasons and to avoid mass tourism. The development of sustainable touris m in very important for the countries where tourism industry is a main element of the local economy because the traditional beach holidays will decline caused by the saturation if the mass tourism will be increasing with that speed (Swarbrooke; 1999). According to Perry (2001), the climate change caused by humans will result in future modification of the climate conditions for example in the Mediterranean area, whereas the northern and western Europe climate will be improved. In 1992 on the conference in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil the first strategy document on sustainable tourism has been announced Agenda 21 as the basic economic model of tourism in XXI century (Hanna; 2010). Although, the Agenda 21 has meet various criticism mostly due to its non-binding treaties allowing most of the recommendations surrounding climate change and various other cultural issues to be ignored by the international community (Hanna; 2010). Nowadays, alternative forms of tourism have been emphasized but taking in account that even small group tours can be damaging the sustainable tourism is hard to accomplish. Latest debate of Tourism Concern came to a conclusion that all-inclusive holidays, arguably the epitome of mass-packaged tourism consumption should be banned (Farrington; 1999 cited in Sharpley and Telfer; 2002; 304). For example Gambias tourism authorities have banned all-inclusive holidays in 1999 (Sharpley and Telfer; 2002). It is an effective contribution to the development of destination. This could be a possible solution of applying sustainable tourism into a real life but it is doubtful if it would work for every country. Another alternative solution suggested by France (1997;89) is the development of holiday complexes which provide artificial  ´sun-warm water` environments (e.g. Center Parc villages), located at points of maximum market access which could be an exit for achieving sustainable tourism just if the great number of people would choose it instead of normal holidays. In conclusion, the growth of tourism seems to be inevitably unsustainable. Tourism is giving employment and economic benefits but for example in the Third World countries the division of money is unequal. The powerful developed countries are always going to be stronger than less developed countries if management will not be carefully planned. So even if tourism is bringing money, it is not always bringing it to the right place. Nowadays people blinded by money forgetting about more important things like passing their tradition to the next generation by conserving it. Mass tourism is termed as a neo-colonialism which can be compared to army forces where instead of their invasion we have an invasion of the tourist influx (Dziedzic; 1998). There is no solution to stop people from travelling. The great understanding of negative impacts would lead to better sustainable tourism development but this need a high number of people involved in it which is hard to accomplish as nowadays people don ´t think much about the future risk related to the planet because not to go away is like not possessing a car or a nice house. It is a marker of status in modern societies (Urry; 1990;4). There is a lack of sustainable understanding and adequate tourism control to develop sustainable tourism. Sustainable tourism will not eliminate negative impacts of tourism but it could be a way to minimize its impact. Because if the growth in mass tourism will continue as fast as it does now the global warming will be arising and some destinations will suffer unbearably high te mperatures with an increase in the risk of fire. All those changes will lead tourists to changes in their holiday destinations, which not necessarily means stop of mass tourism. Tourist will continue with transport use even if they will reduce their travels, it will be still environmental damaging. All the facts are coming into conclusion that the best way for sustainable tourism would be staying at home.

John Keats, La Belle Dame Sans Essay -- essays research papers fc

John Keats is a great British poet. He has written many popular poems. La Belle Dame sans Merci is a ballad that was written in 1819. In this ballad, the knight is deceived by the woman he meets. He falls in love with this woman instantly and is convinced that she too is in love with him. The woman makes the knight fall for her by making herself beautiful. The woman deceives the knight into trusting her and then when she takes him to her cave, she breaks his heart by leaving him after the knight wakes up from a nightmare. The first stanza of this ballad describes the knight as being lonely in the wilderness. A Alone and palely loitering. @ The knight is alone and wandering around on his horse. A And no birds sing. @ In this sentence he describes his sadness because the singing of birds is associated with happiness and the birds are not singing. So haggard and so woe-begone? The squirrel=s granary is full, And the harvest=s done. In this quote the knight is troubled because everything is going as it is supposed to, the granary is full and the harvest is done. This is why the knight is also sad and roaming around on his horse. In the next stanza, the knight is described as exhausted in appearance and afflicted. â€Å"And on thy cheeks a fading rose fast withereth too.† The colour of his skin is fading away, and he is dying. I met a lady in the meads Full beautiful - a faery=s child. Her hair was long, her foot was light, And her eyes were wild. In this stanza, the knight meet...

where the red fern grows :: essays research papers

In the story, Billy was walking home one day when there was a dog fight in the ally and he went to investigate to see what was going on and there was a bunch of dog’s beating up on one dog so he decided to get involved and break it up. They all scattered away when they saw him coming. The dog that was getting beat up and was lying on the ground and it was hurt. He went to the dog and saw it was a beautiful hound dog. He also noticed that the dog wasn’t hurt that bad, just scared.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When Billy was a boy he always wanted a pair of hound dogs. However, as much as he wanted a pair of hounds he did not receive them. Every now and then he would hear the neighboring dogs calling treed to their masters, and their masters whooping back to them to tell the hound that they were on the way. This encouraged Billy to want a hound even more. His dad told him one day that his grandpa wanted to see him soon. Once he got to his grandfather, his grandfather told him that he had seen an ad in the newspaper for some hound dog pups. So he went and got an old tin can and started putting money in it that he made from working in the fields. Over the next year he had saved up enough money to buy his hound dog. He hiked over the mountains to the nearest town post office because that’s where his dogs where going to be until he picked them up. He got to the post office and put them in a potato sack bag and headed for home. His grandpa had given him a coon trap so he could train his dogs. He named his dogs Little Anne and Old Dan. By the time hunting season had come he had his dogs trained and ready to go. The first night they treed their first ringtail coon. He skinned the coon and took it to his grandfather for money. He gave the money to his father. After about a year his dogs had become very good at hunting. The neighboring kids thought that their dogs were the best dogs. He told them that his dogs could catch any coon. So they challenged him thinking that they were going to get five dollars out of him.

A Tragedy Makes A Hero Essay -- essays papers

A Tragedy Makes A Hero Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy. A tragedy can be described and executed in many ways, whether it is through cinema, television or a play for theatre, as long as it has a solemn kind of ending. It is characterized as a very sad event, action, or experience for a certain character in the piece. According to Aristotle’s â€Å"Poetics,† a tragedy needs six elements, a plot, character, language, thought, spectacle, and melody, as in many dramas do, but the organization of the plot is how tragedy is brought about. (747) The plot – is the end for which a tragedy exists, and the end or purpose is the most important thing of all. (748) Tragedy often reveals a very basic message; whether or not actions are thought before hand, actions hold consequences that must be recognized and tolerated. Drama always circulates around a hero or protagonist in a tragic epic, whose sufferings are brought about by his or her actions and creates a standpoint in relation to them. The story of â€Å"Medea† by Euripides is a tragic one indeed. Medea, a sorceress and a princess, used her powers and influence to help Jason, find the Golden Fleece. During the escape she kills her brother as a getaway. After several murders, Medea and Jason move to Corinth, which is where the play takes place. Here, Medea gives birth to two children by Jason establishing a family. Jason later moves out, divorcing Medea and moving in with Glauce, the daughter of Creon. The play looks at Medea’s anger and rage, as a she moves from suicidal to revengeful. Medea eventually kills her own children and Glauce, all to get back at Jason. The nurse in the play opens the play, expressing her desire to undo the past. â€Å"How I wi... ... Once Creon has found out about the family tree, Oedipus and his children are banished from Thebes, later to meet their fate in the following plays. A tragedy does indeed make a hero in ancient world literature. Every single being has a fate, no matter what level of society that being is on. One cannot change his or her fate; it is left up to the gods. Eventually all roads of life leads to death, it is how that being dies brings about the tragedy. As Aristotle mentioned in â€Å"Poetics†, What is more, without action there could not be a tragedy, but there could be without characterization. Bibliography: Works Cited Aristotle. â€Å"Poetics.† Lawall and Mack 746-750 Euripides. â€Å"Medea.† Lawall and Mack 640-672 Lawall, Sarah and Mack, Maynard, eds. The Norton Anthology World Masterpieces. 7th ed. Vol 1. New York: W ·W · Norton & Company, 1999.

Victimization of Women in Society with Regard to Anita Nair, S Ladiescoupe

The undeserved dilemma of modern woman is a recurrent theme of the novels of Bharati, a widely acclaimed author and winner of the National Book critics’ award. She considered her works, a celebration of her emotion that she brings out of her heart. She has depicted very minutely the condition of Asian immigrants in North America, with particular attention to the changes taking place in South Asian women in a new world. She presents all her characters a survivors against the brutalities and violence that surrounded them.A threat that runs through all the novels of Mukherjee is of religious, racial, sexual and economic class difference. Bharati expresses the â€Å"the inner expropriation of cultural identity†. Pre-natal reminiscence is the fountain head of the Indian tradition. Encounter between India, England and USA ends in an inter cultural accommodation. The two integral parts of reality are fixity and change. The blending of being and becoming attracts the attention of novelists. Nativity and nationality meet face to face challenging immigrant sensibility and expatriate predicament.Monolithic cultural identity is dissolved in the process of cultural mutation. Thus this is evident in the novel against the background of Tara Lata’s recollection of childhood memory of previous birth and cross cultural pollination. A British becoming an Indian is a matter of attention while at the same time an Indian turning a snobbish British is equally an important subject matter for our concern. The philosophical import of the title, â€Å"From Being to Becoming,† is actually gleaned from the ritual incidents and personages.Heraclitus, the Greek philosopher stated that nothing remains static and so everything is in a state of change or constant transition. This phenomenon is nothing but a movement across cultures. The troublesome question is about the possibility of the life of the mind which transcends space and time. What is native becomes alien and what is alien becomes native. The issue is not so much connected with external space-time framework. But it has lot to do with our inner life. For example, Mishtigunj and Mist Mahal are the creations of John Mist.These places had become the home of ecumenical accommodation. It has turned in to a place which supports Christian unity. The Shoonder Bon village worshipped John Mist as an avatar. Helping the poor, feeding the hungry ones, elevating the life of the depressed, creating schools, building houses, hospitals, supplying the money, the necessary wherewithal, and shaping the body and soul of Shoonder Bon Home are the admirable heroic activities. All his heroic activities had endowed John Mist with the status of divine incarnation.By temperament he was Vedantic and by outlook he was Vedic. Experiences are always universal and they tend to move on in a parallel line. A man born in England getting fully rooted and absorbed in the life of Shoonder Bon village in East can be descr ibed as a phenomenon continent. Though the inhabitation is in a specific culture modern like cross-cultural pollination and acculturation are not sufficient to psychoanalyze the life of a soul. The Tree Bride is a powerful depiction of pre-independence India bringing two continents into contact with each other.East and West are traditionally conceived as terms of contrast, but this novel differs from this time-honored way of treating East and West. Shattering and solidifying of cultural boundaries are the two sub-conscious streams pervading the novel. John Mist serves as an example for the first category while Virgil Treadwell is shown as an instance for second category as he happens to be an East India Company official and a commissioner with an Anglophile and Edwardian bent of mind looking to formal, external decorum and spectability as norms of good behavior.But the novelist is preoccupied with mysticism and transformation of consciousness. Therefore anectodes, precedents and suc ceedents are only matter of chronology, history and geography. Human beings are irrespective of time, place and age. Anti-British and pro-British elements are attitudes which are incidental and largely history. The novelist does not spare her satirical pen where the British rule in India is concerned. Brahmo Samaj, a revival Indian Renaissance Movement, comes under severe scrutiny in the novelist’s hands.It can be clearly seen that the artist shows her inward respect over Jaikrishna Gangooly, the great grandfather of Tara, and his daughter, the Tree Bride. They also respected the Gangooly family for it is more attached to Arya Samaj which came as a corrective to Brahmo Samaj. The first movement endorses the philosophy of liberal, scientific Westernization while the second accepts the same phenomenon with a great deal of reservation. The business of Bharati Mukherjee is to be true to the facts of life. She acknowledges the fact that the British lifted India from the deep slumb er of decadence.At the same time the novelist mounts a frontal attack on the British strategy of perpetrating the foreign rule through religious divisions. â€Å"It is easy for an English-educated, middle-class Indian (or Pakistani or Bangladesh) to fall in line with colonial prejudice. Thirty thousand British bureaucrats and â€Å"factors† were able to rule ten thousand times more Indians by dividing Muslims from Hindus, Persian Zoroastrians from Muslims, Sikhs from Hindus, and nearly everyone, including Hindus, from castes like lazy Brahmins and money-grubbing banias†. 44) It shows that the need of the British empire could be better fulfilled by the Indians than by the English men. Macaulay’s limited psychoanalysis of the situation was right as far as his administrative framework was involved. But he failed to see the spontaneous mystical influence of each culture over the other. The novel contains two layers of unfolding its theme. One layer is obviously conc erned with the consequences resulting from the setting up of the East India Company. To a historian, the other layer remains obscure and somewhat non-logical.But the novelist takes immense care to distribute the emphasis in an equable manner for the purpose of achieving cultural comprehensiveness in the historical-cum-artist portrayal of personages. Macaulay saw culture and civilization in the mass as a consolidated unified framework. That is after all a nineteenth-century Benthamite utilitarian rationale. It is the justification or rationalization of relating to the utilitarian philosophy of Jeremy Bentham. A mass tendency validates an individual wishing after some cultural fallback. Man in the mass is metaphorically dead.Only the individual who does not align himself with the mass tendency is alive. Every culture is in a state of being and becoming and what is far more important is that one emerges into the other. There is always an interplay between the two. The reason is that ev ery society is subject to mutation and change. No culture has come to stay like a consolidated stone. History events and the march of time leave no society and culture untouched. The richness of any antiquity is never lost in the exposure of any historical, social and cultural metamorphosis.The novel brings out this idea of absorption and assimilation: In my mind, the history of the British in India is a story of adventure gone bad, where the thrill of new encounters, the lure of transformation†¦started drying up†¦Maybe there is a limit to the human capacity for wonder or the ability to absorb the truly alien without trying to reduce its dimensions and tame its excess. (48) It is clear that the stand of outside time is true and enduring . Simultaneously some other mysterious element enters time to put life through a process of transmutation. Frequently at such moments cultural upheavals occur.One such movement is the encounter between England and India in the wake of the s etting up of the East India Company as the nucleus and the wing of the British Empire. The powerful depiction of the scenes and a comprehensive portrayal of significant characters enables us to come to terms with the psycho-social implications of what they stand for and where the repercussions lead to. A head-on collision between the sociology of the society and the psychology of the individuals is perceptible. Demonstrably Eliot’s theory of past influencing the present and the present equally modifying the past is at work in the novel.A discussion taking place in San Francisco among Tara and Bish,Yash Khanna and Victoria Khanna is related to a memorable historical event in Shoonder Bon village (in East Bengal). The information so secured about this past is more by coincidence. The restlessnes of Tara’s spirit and the probability involved in her rumbling upon some material link the present with the past. It is the matter of sheer chance. Nevertheless it has value. Vict oria Khanna’s grandfather was Virgil Treadwell. As he was in Indian Civil Service, he was posted as a district commissioner in Bengal in 1930.The Six containing old ledgers of grandfather is a historical record about him. Victoria Khanna informs Tara about these materials. An impetus from the research into the past history Tara Lat Gangooly is the outcome of Tara’s inner prompting of her reminiscent prevision of a remote historical record of Mishtigunj which presents a parallel equivalent to an idealist view of a world of unalloyed joy and bliss. The random availability of record by sheer coincidence or accident from the hand of Victoria Khanna leads to the fulfillment of such a goal of study and investigation.Mist Nama is a powerful poetic depiction of a rich rewriting of the ancient Indian Vedic history by a British-turned Hindoo, John Mist. The question, â€Å"Who contributes† is as much important as the question â€Å"What is contributed. † John Mist is the creator of an ideal social order. Mist-Nama is a practical rendering of a life-vision. A British Hindu stood for the Hindu-Moslem unity. His governing philosophy in the language of the novelist was the harmonious combination of the ‘two’ of everything and it meant occupation and employment for both Hindus and Moslems in an equitable proportion.He conducted hectic commerce and business enterprises and whatever he earned, he shared with all. A profit-making East India Company British ship dropped a legacy making sailor-turned savior, John Mist. There were many Indians who became pseudo-British by their outward forms of Westernization like Virgil Treadwell. At the same time there were many British like John Mist, David Llewellyn and Coughlin Nigel who became true Indian Hindoos by their inner transformation of being. Imitation must contain an element of creative transformation; otherwise it can turn into mere form and decorum ending in an emptiness of being.The cont ext for the discussion of the relationship between ‘being’ and ‘becoming’ is demonstrably evident here. The truth to be established is that’ being’ and’ becoming’ are not the usual dichotomies but they are two indivisible sides of the same coin. Tara and John Mist appear as immigrants. Immigrancy is equated with loss of something and a search for true â€Å"something. † Tradition and convention describe nativity as something which is independent upon space, time, history and geography. This is a monolithic vision of culture and nativity. Nativity is therefore defined as a belonging to a culture and sharing oneness with it.But Bharati Mukherjee establishes another view that nativity is independent of all factors and it is more connected with inner being and less with spontaneous factors. A search for realization of inner being is conserved by the novelist as nativity. The idea of birthplace being conserved as nativity is di fferent from the idea of describing nativity as sharing oneness with the inner being which is independent of spacing the framework. The drama is that being turns into becoming and being from becoming turns into being. The novelist holds two views which are not contradictory as each other.John Mist says: â€Å"having come nowhere, he had everywhere to go. Having had nothing, he has had everything and anything at his disposal. † (27) Elsewhere the novelist says that where one inherits nothing, he is entitled to everything. Freedom of immigrancy and liberty of any form of absorption put the being and the becoming in a process of creative interplay. Mukherjee acknowledges the fact that life is an unpredictable mystery:â€Å"We have been trained to think of Mishtigunj as home in ways that our adopted homes, Calcutta and California, must never be.Ancestors come and to, but one’s native village, one’s desh, is immutable. (29)† Tara realizes her native home as Mi shtigunj in a state of immigrancy. But the home of John Mist is the same Indian village. Tara and John Mist realized their nativity in different ways where ‘being’ and’ becoming’ move and merge into each other. John Mist is the creator of Indian Mishtigunj and he is a British who discovers his sweet home in this village. Tara, an Indian immigrant in San Francisco, discovers home in the British created legendary village, Who is an immigrant? Who is a native?These questions get simultaneously juxtaposed. Home if therefore or it needs to be defined where one’s being is. In comparison with Tara and John Mist, Virgil Treadwell is less a better human being in spite of his being absorbed in the new phenomenon called Eurasianism. He could plot along with the British and spy on Tara Lata Gangooly’s house. These facts have deprived him of his inner being. His Eurasianism corrupted his nobility, introducing falsity. He sold his soul and made his profit whereas John Mist gave away his profit to people and he discovered his soul in his sacrifice.Bharati Mukherjee says that when the British like Virgil Treadwell spoke of profit John Mist thought in terms of leaving legacy. Therefore the concept of total objectivity of culture dies-down in the birth of polyvalent cultural subjectivity. Tara, Virgil Treadwell and John Mist are varying examples of the new proposition. With John Mist loss of objectivity (British culture) ends in discovery of subjectivity. Here the words’ loss’ and ‘gain’ and ‘objectivity’ and ‘subjectivity’ and’ being’ and ‘becoming’ are more connected with subconscious realization of one’s inner being.In the case of Virgil Treadwell, British gain meant Indian loss whereas conversely in the case of John Mist’s British loss meant Indian gain. The novelist uses very sensational generalizations to illustrate this truth:â€Å"All t he could-have-beens and should-have-beens of history, the best of the East meeting the best of the West, etc. , etc. , shrink from grandeur to petty profit-taking. (48) The question ‘Who conquered whom’ melts into insignificance: â€Å"history is written by victors, but in the case of India, it’s not always clear who won, is it? 90) It is that both the victor (West) and the vanquished (East) mutually enriched the sensibility of the two cultures. It is a strange divine coincidence that John Mist’s creation of the â€Å"Mist-Nama† and â€Å"Mishtigunj† is along a line which the ancient tradition of India endorses. The discovery of such a wonderful treasure is made possible by the research work of an Indian immigrant in America, Tara. Both John Mist and Tara are in a way immigrants. The philosophical axiom is that cultures are not fixed entities like â€Å"quantity. Naturally ‘being’ and’ becoming’ are not static. Th e mutations have repercussions. Though the word ‘being’ created a misleading picture of fixity and permanence, it has the character of fabric. The British conquest of India forms the context of the new in which these issues are raised indirectly. The history of Mishtigunj created by British Hindu John Mist puts obstacles in the way of glibly accepting the two categories ‘being’ and ‘becoming’. What determines history is not its concern with outward form but the ‘inner implications’ is which it unconsciously creates.It is this history which has created a martyr, John Mist. Tara Lata Gangooly represents the best of the East and her predecessor John Mist represents both the best of the East and the best of the West. Characters like Virgil Treadwell are more concerned with the British form and decorum than with the essence of life. Both John Mist and Tara Lata Gangooly live at a deeper level while men like Virgil Treadwell move on a su perficial plane. There are many places where Virgil Treadwell is compared to Churchill and Nixon and he is satirized subtly.Both John Mist and Tara Lata died a martyr’s death. The former was hanged in 1880 on a charge of disobedience of the British Colonial venture and the latter died in a prison in 1943 on the same charges of treason, sedition and disobedience. These events and situations by themselves are utterly insignificant. But the effect and impact they leave have a lasting value. It is this fact which enable the readers arrives at a philosophical link between being and becoming both is that the reality of life permits a movement between being and becoming.Liking John Mist, Tara Lata, Virgil and their life styles lead the leader draw an intelligent interference events and circumstances keeps them in a state of transition and transformation. It is a great achievement on the part of the novelist to aim at an imaginative-historical reconstruction of Mishtigunj. Bharathi M ukherjee is not a thoughless immigrant. Her loyalty to the essence of life gives her a new responsibility to rephrase the issue of the contact and correlation between being and becoming.

Moral Living Synoptic Question Essay

In this essay it is my intention to examine the theme of moral living within the Old Testament and the Celtic Church. Morality refers to ethical issues. It is the quality of being in accord with standards of right or good conduct. It is a system of ideas of right and wrong conduct. There are two interlinked themes of religious morality and social morality under moral living. The foundation of moral living within the Old Testament is the Sinai Covenant. Whereas, the basis of morality in Celtic Church is Saint Patrick; his moral base was always routed in his scriptural beliefs. Moses, for example, made a covenant with Yahweh on Mount Sinai, the principles from which are the foundation for the Judah Christian faith today, where he received the Ethical Decalogue (10 Commandments). As Drane states, â€Å"the commands were essentially moral requirements. Honesty, truth and justice were more important to Yahweh than the performance of religious rites.† Love of God and Love of Neighbour were the two commandments at the core of the Ethical Decalogue. The first three commandments central religious morality however, the last seven focus on Love of Neighbour and Social Morality. Winward states, â€Å"no man could be in a right relationship with God who was not in a right relationship with his fellow men.† The people of Israel had an obligation as the chosen people to obey the Ethical Decalogue. Abraham was called by God to give up his polytheistic ways. God promised Abraham that he would never give up on him. As Heinsch states, â€Å"he had to journey to a foreign land alone trusting in God’s guidance.† If Abraham fulfilled this request God promised him three things, Great Nation, Land (which was Canaan) and Protection. At this time, Abraham worshipped the popular moon god, â€Å"sin† and was to break with idolatry and become monotheistic. Epstein stated that, â€Å"Abraham turned to the service of the one and only God whom he recognised as the creator of heaven and earth.† Abraham’s love of the one true God and his change from idolatry reflects similarities with Saint Patrick. Patrick arrived in Ireland to a pagan country. The people of Ireland were idolaters in that they worshipped as many as 400 gods, with the main god being the Dagda (the father). The Celts held such things as the sun, trees, groves, water and birds to be sacred. Joyce states that they had the tendency to â€Å"find the divine in all of created nature.† Patrick brought Christianity to Ireland to transform the pagan people to monotheism. He wanted them to worship and love the one true God. Patrick adopted pagan practice to Christian tradition, for example, he changed the worship of the â€Å"sun† to the â€Å"son.† Patrick wanted the people to become monks and virgins for Christ. He advocated that true worship of God required to be newly baptised (converted from paganism to Christianity.) Patrick wanted the people to convert freely; they were never forced as the decision to become a Christian had to come from the heart. When Patrick left a place he made sure he left a building (church) to be used for communal worship. Like the Old Testament prophets, Patrick expected his ordained to be good role models to the people. Unfortunately in the Old Testament the religious leaders did not always do this. Ezekiel, for example, was to inform the people that God was going to hold the religious leaders responsible as they had led the people astray instead of encouraging them to worship only Yahweh. God told Ezekiel to prophesy to the leaders, â€Å"shepherds have been feeding themselves, should not, you the shepherds feed the sheep.† In tandem with this, the prophet Elijah also had to deal with the people of Israel’s idolatry. He was aware that there was a lack of steadfast love due to the people worshipping both Yahweh and Baal (god of fertility.) Elijah challenged the people about this saying, â€Å"how long will you go limping with two different opinions?† The people needed to stop worshipping both Yahweh and Baal and were to only worship the one true God, Yahweh. Elijah had little sympathy for the people worshipping both Gods. He challenged King Ahab to a contest on Mount Carmel between Yahweh and Baal to determine who the true God is. Elijah had a great victory as Yahweh won, usually this would be celebrated but instead, Elijah went to Mount Horeb as he knew the people’s change of heart of Yahweh as the one true God was temporary and this was not good enough. True love of God was required. In line with this, Patrick also challenged the pagan people’s ways through their worship of Dagda and Lugh. It took a long time for the pagan people to convert to truly worshipping one God. Paganism continued to exist alongside early Christianity 100 years after Patrick. Amos spoke out about social injustices, he stated, â€Å"let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.† Amos spoke about respect for marriage, something which King David lacked. He had an affair with Bathsheba and committed the sins of lust, adultery and murder. He was punished for this as Yahweh was to â€Å"raise up evil against you out of your own house.† David’s son died as a result of his sins. Similarly, Patrick also showed a respect for life. He spoke out about injustices such as slavery and condemnation of wealth in his letter to Coroticus. Patrick respected women and this was reflected in the Letter to Coroticus. In L19 Patrick expresses his concern for women. The women were taken as captives, to be distributed â€Å"as prizes.† Patrick makes it clear that the fate of Coroticus and his men is to be â€Å"lorded over† for all eternity by those whom they regarded to be â€Å"barbarian Irish.† In L4, Patrick also speaks up against murder and slavery – he grieves for those captured and killed and calls the perpetrators themselves â€Å"captives of Satan† the punishment met out to them will be â€Å"external life in hell.† To conclude, Christianity is now one of the leading world religions and therefore the mission of both the prophets and Patrick was successful. There will always be a call for people to repent and convert to Christianity with a return to a moral life.