Mckinsey Report July 2012

Day of reckoning for European retail banking McKinsey report July 2012 The dynamics of the global banking sector have been in flux since the beginning of the 2008. Irate creditors everywhere have called for more stringent regulation to ensure that that the interests of financial institutions are more closely aligned with those of their customers and shareholders. The global, European and national authorities have responded with vigour and the regulatory reform to which all banks, wholesale and retail, will be subject in the coming years will have an important impact on their bottom line. The single biggest cause of a reduction in retail banks’ ROE will come from the global regulatory mechanism Basel III, which will place greater capital requirements on banks and more emphasis on adequate funding and liquidity. Furthermore, three important European regulatory instruments, the EU Mortgage Directive, the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) and the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), Payment Service Directive, will also considerably diminish ROE. Finally, the implementation of new national regulation will create further downward pressure on ROE, though this will vary considerably from country to country. This report provides estimates on the impact on capital, revenues, costs and profit margins of all the relevant regulations on each product (both asset- and liability-based) in each of the four biggest European markets – France, Germany, Britain and Italy – which combined constitute 66% of the EU27 retail-banking market. ROE is the standard metric used and the report calculates the cumulative effect of all regulation as if it were all put in place immediately, using 2010 as the baseline year. The paper reaches some important conclusions. Firstly, with regard to national and continent-wide retail banking markets, ROE will fall from approximately 10% to 6% when all four markets are taken as a whole. Below is a breakdown of the effect in each of the national markets: Country France Germany Italy UK ROE Pre-Regulation 14% 7% 5% 14% ROE Post-Regulation 10% 4% 3% 7% Delta -29 -47 -40 -48 The impact in the UK is particularly caustic as national regulation is extensive. In terms of the effect of regulation on the different product offerings of retail banks, asset-based products are generally the harder-hit. In the UK and France, mortgages and small-business loans will be the most adversely affected. Similarly in Germany mortgages, personal and small-business loans will be the most negatively influenced. In Italy, the value of every asset-based product will be impaired. The disheartening truth of the matter is that across the board the ROE of asset-based products will fall below 10%, which is currently the estimated cost of equity for retail banks. On the other hand, liability-based products will prove more resilient. Deposits will become more valuable to retail banks as they are an advantaged form of funding and liquidity under new regulation. Geographically speaking, in France and Germany only investment products and debit cards will be negatively affected and in Italy most liability-based products will escape relatively intact. However, once again domestic regulation in Britain will play a role in reducing retail banks’ ROE, to the extent that all liability products in the UK will be adversely affected. An important section of the report discusses global systemically important financial institutions (GSIFIs). Such pecuniary establishments are considered too interconnected and universal to be subject to the new regulation imposed on smaller-scale retail banks. The Financial Stability Board has therefore proposed additional capital requirements for G-SIFIs, which will induce a further reduction of their ROE of anywhere between 0. 4 percentage points and 1. 3 percentage points depending on the institution. In addition, it will be obligatory for all G-SIFIs to prepare a recovery and resolution plan (RRP) that will provide a strategic map for authorities to wind down the bank in the event of dissolution. The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) is also developing new global rules on risk IT for G-SIFIs which are expected to be issued by the end of 2012. Such regulation will mean that these organisations will be subject to exhaustive supervision and many ad hoc requests, thus amplifying costs and absorbing management resources. The general conclusion of this paper is that it is improbable that banks across the board in Europe will return to pre-regulation ROE levels in the short to medium term. The UK will be particularly adversely affected due to its inflexible domestic regulation. Nevertheless, the paper proposes four mitigative measures retail banks can employ in order to cushion the blow of new regulatory forces on their ROE levels. The first is â€Å"Technical Mitigation†, which essentially involves improving efficiency of capital and funding. Secondly, â€Å"Capital – and funding-light operating models† seek to further improve funding efficiency and reduce risk-weighted assets (RWAs) by implementing changes to their product mix and characteristics and ensuring more vigorous pursuit of collateral and better outplacement of risk. Thirdly, and although they will be severely limited in doing so by regulatory authorities, banks can execute â€Å"repricing† in order to compensate the shortfall in ROE. The paper predicts more repricing in fragmented industries, which implies that the scale of repricing will be limited in the UK, a highly concentrated industry. Types of repricing include new fee-based pricing, modular pricing, partial performance remuneration and value-added packages. Finally, and perhaps most dramatically, financial institutions can engage in â€Å"Business-Model Alignment. Such restrategizing would involve two principle shifts. The first centres on a new, rigorous focus on ROE in retail banks, meaning greater investment in management systems and strengthening their resource allocation processes. The second important shift can be denoted as â€Å"Sustainable Retail Banking,† and comprises four key elements: expansion into new revenue sources, creation of advice for which customers w ill pay, reconfiguration and refocusing of the distribution system to render it leaner and simpler and cutting absolute costs by 20 – 30%. By exercising the above levers, retail banks can create a bulwark against the weight of new regulation and cushion the inevitable reduction in their ROE. Anticipatory forward-planning of mitigation measures is central in adapting to the new regulatory environment engulfing retail banking and will help banks that are fully committed to returning to pre-regulation ROE levels to achieve their post-regulatory reform potential.

Ruskin Bond

Religious Strain in the story Angry River By Abha Sirohi Research Scholar, A. K. P. G. College, Hapur (Ghaziabad) †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Ruskin Bond attempts to analyze human psychology in his short stories; He deals with the elemental and impulsive life of man. He tells the stories objectively and beyond all these things his stories shows goodness of man’s heart and his faith in the Supreme power.He has innate power to produce the influence of one’s emotions, sounds and sights that thrills the senses of other man; it is due to his profound faith in God. As a writer he has put goodness of man and dignity of human self ab ove all considerations this is the reason sometimes our heart is filled with pleasure and a sense of spiritual satisfaction. Ruskin Bond is a writer of children and when we talk about children a sense of innocence creeps over our mind.The bent of mind of the author takes it in a religious way; he wants to show us innocence of nature, the basic decencies of God. God creates and nourishes us with innocence without any partiality, in return He needs only our dedication, but most of the times we ignore this fact due to our business, our careless attitude:- â€Å"in worrying about own distress, they had forgotten about the island, in the middle of the river. The river was very angry now, rampaging down from the hills and thundering across the plains†¦ 165 Ruskin Bonds children stories are very famous in all over world. Some of his popular stories are Blue Umbrella, Untouchable, Panther’s Moon, Time Stops at Shamli and Angry River. The story Angry River portrays the work of n ature. How nature affects our lives? What He (God, the Supreme power) wants from us? How should we treat and preserve the nature. The story is a pathetic description of a family of remote area, where no one can imagine about survival.The Angry River is the story of a girl Sita who lives with her grandparents on a lonely island in the middle of a river. The story illustrates the life in the lap of nature, which is a symbol of simplicity and naturality. Bond has narrated the opening lines of the story in a very beautiful way:- â€Å"In the middle of the river, the river that began in the mountains of the Himalayas and ended in the bay Bengal there was a small

America's Constitution Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 3

America's Constitution - Assignment Example By taking this action, the plaintiff queried if it was really constitutional. Although it was done under the guidance of the Takings Clauses of the Fifth Amendment, it was challenged for not in a compliance with the public purpose. However, according to the Michigan Comp Laws clause 213.23, a county government has an authority to condemn a private property and use it for public purposes. Meaning, whenever a municipality decides to condemn a private property, it should be used for the activities which are meant for the common good such as the creation of employment opportunities to the citizens. So, like in this case, the municipality was constructing the park to help in generating numerous jobs to the people. This would be a good initiative that would help in reducing the high rate of unemployment within the municipality and helping the municipality to increase its revenues through taxation. As clearly spelled out in the article 10(2) of the Michigan Constitution, any constitutional condemnation should be justly done. Meaning, whenever the government seizes a private property, the owner must be fairly and justly compensated. A fair compensation simply refers to giving financial payments that correspond to the current and actual market value of the property as at the time of condemnation (Amar93). Therefore, while planning to build such a big park, the County of Wayne must be ready to compensate all the individual owners whose property has been condemned. After all, condemnation is a constitutional process that is permitted by the law if done for a public purpose.

Human beings' activity with global warming Essay

Human beings' activity with global warming - Essay Example The most notable of all greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide, which has the capability to continue being in the atmosphere for a lengthy time span. It is a scientifically proven fact that this gas could bring about a noteworthy rise in the temperature. At this point, it is but obvious to raise the question â€Å"No doubt, carbon dioxide is a very potent gas; but how are human beings responsible for rise in the levels of this gas?† The subsequent paragraph would be attempting to answer this. (1) Human beings, purely for furthering their own interests, have brought about a drastic rise in the levels at which fossil fuels are combusted. This has been for the purposes of generating electricity, heating, transportation and cement manufacturing, among many others. It is being estimated that, on account of all these activities, the annual carbon dioxide emissions are approximately 22 billion tons, on a global basis. Almost as a direct result of that, the atmospheric concentration of ca rbon dioxide has risen by roughly thirty percent. As a matter of fact, these facts are more than sufficient to convince even the most skeptical that it is nothing other than human activity predominantly responsible for heightened global warming. (1) Scientists have estimated that during the course of the last century, there has been a rise in temperature of surface of Earth to the extent of one degree Fahrenheit. The fact has been highlighted that in this very duration there is also a 25 percent increase in the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere. It has been mentioned earlier in the write-up that the enhanced levels of carbon dioxide are chiefly attributable to various human activities. Extensive studies aimed at understanding the link between the above rise in temperature and increase in carbon dioxide concentration came out with a key observation: human activity is mainly responsible for the scenario where the Planet has become warmer. (2) Simultaneously, the scientist s also suggested that even some natural parameters could have played a role in global warming. In fact, with regard to the pattern of global warming, the scientists have divided the previous century into two halves. They state that, when the warming of the first half is taken into account, the natural factors must have been primarily responsible for the advent of the phenomenon. This is because; in that particular phase, various human activities resulting in carbon dioxide emissions were on the lower side. But when the second half of the century (1900-2000) is considered, it is but obvious that human beings are the chief contributors to the rise in global warming. In this period, the diverse commercial pursuits of people have led to an alarming rise in the levels of carbon dioxide emissions, and this is a fact beyond any dispute. So, it can safely be inferred that the natural parameters did not have a major role in global warming, with regard to the second part (of the century). (3) The following are some of the activities that have led to the advent of a scenario where, there is a disturbing rise in the greenhouse emissions: various agricultural practices,

George Herbert Mead Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

George Herbert Mead - Essay Example generally, which arouse in the individual himself the response which he is calling out in the other, and such that from the point of view of that response he is able to direct his later conduct." The gesture of one individual is his response to the symbols being shown by the society. This is where the reaction of an individual comes from. Symbols always presuppose the ability of each participant in a communicative process to visualize his own performance from the standpoint of the others, to take the role of the others. In nonsymbolic interaction human beings, like animals, respond directly to one another. In symbolic interaction, where they use significant gestures, they interpret each other's attitudes and act on the basis of the meaning yielded by such interpretations. In Mead's work individual responses on the way he sees the society. It is the society that dictates his actions and responses to one another. The society has somewhat really influenced me as an individual. ... rates nonsignificant (unself-conscious) gestures, as found on the animal level, from the significant (self-conscious) gestures that characterize most human intercourse. As an individual I usually act based on intuition. What the situation or the symbols presented to me is my cue as to what my decision would be. I have learned from George Mead writing's that interpretation is important. Interpreting once gesture or symbol would lead to a better communication. However sometimes simple reaction that is not intentionally done would result in problems and wrong interpretation. That makes me think that Mead maybe had a personal experiences on the symbols and action that he has mentioned on his writing. For me what is important is how you convey your message to others. A simple tap on the shoulder of your friend would mean that you are on his side whenever he has a problem. Or others would interpret it differently. Mead had shown me the difference in the reaction of human to non human. Anim als would behave differently than man. Sometimes animals would not show any signs that he is going to attack you, while human can show that he is going to attack by his facial reactions and gestures. The communicative process includes the self conscious adjustment of the person to the conduct of others. The responses to each other conduct would include definition, redefinition and interpretation and reinterpretation. Experience is not first individual and then social. Each individual is continually involved in a succession of joint enterprises with others, which form and shape his mind. Consciousness is not a given; it is emergent. People would blame television and media when something bad happen. This resulted in many survey being done by several organization on the influence of media

Lab assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Lab assignment - Essay Example We are aware that during the judgement day, God will judge us in accordance to our actions. Therefore, in my own view, everything lives in God just as the article suggests. Pentecostalism as suggested by the article â€Å"The Origins and Impact of Pentecostalism† originated from the days of the apostles in the day of the Pentecost. The denomination then spread to other parts of the world, winning many followers. According to Fisher (2013) â€Å"Over time, this tradition has ï ¬â€šowered into different groups, including fun-damentalists, mainline Protestant evangelicals, the Holiness movement, and Pentecostals.† Although there are difficulties in determining the truth of the theory, I chose to believe that Pentecostalism begun from somewhere. However, I cannot fully concur with the author on its initial beginning. Jesus taught through a number of ways, such as through parables and miracles. However, throughout his teachings, he gave a lot of emphasis on three pillars that he regarded as the most essential in the lives of human beings. Jesus taught about three most important pillars that are most important to a human being, which include righteousness, prayer, and fasting. The article also suggests that if we repent God forgives of our sins as the article suggests, â€Å"Those who sincerely repent—even if they are the hated toll-collectors, prostitutes, or ignorant common people—are more likely to receive God’s forgiveness than are the learned and self-righteous† (Fisher, 2013). Personally, I conquer with this as Jesus emphasised that no sin is too big to be forgiven. The beatitudes as Jesus taught are qualities of life that increase our happiness as well as makes us receive more blessings from God. If we follow the beatitudes, we increase our relationship with God and this improves our inner happiness. Fisher (2013) suggests that â€Å"that those who considered themselves superior were more at odds with God than those who were aware of their sins†, which

Case studty (marketing) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Case studty (marketing) - Essay Example k due cognizance of changing customers’ requirements and used various market metrics to track customers were found to be the major facilitators for improved performance outcome of OQTA in 2004. The fast changing socio-economic paradigms and advancing technology has tremendously changed the dynamics of market strategies. ‘Organizations must change because their environments change’ (Bateman, 1990). In the contemporary times, the customer has become much more informed and technology has provided him with more options within the similar product lines, but produced by different companies. The case study of Outback Queensland Tourism Authority or OQTA is a case in point where application of marketing theory significantly improved the performance outcome of IQTA. Outback Queensland Tourism Authority or OQTA is a non profit premier organization of Queensland, Australia that is primarily responsible for the marketing, promotion and development of the tourism industry of Queensland’s Outback. OQTA promotes the interest of 21 government agencies and has around 230 members comprising of various stakeholders like tour operators, accommodation and transport providers etc It was observed that despite an intensive and focused mass communication campaign through brand building advertisements in television and radio, outback tourism saw 5% less visitors during 1999 to 2003. The present situation would be analyzed for the decreasing business and efforts would be made to identify the areas that lacked focus and new strategy that need to be pursued to turn it around and increase tourism activity in the outback. Outback covers substantial 48% of Queensland. While the lack of funds might have contributed to low business to some extent but the major factors that were responsible for low turnout of visitors were primarily because OQTA market strategy lacked of market orientation and brand building rather than the customers was the main focus of the marketing activities. The

Understanding ecohydrological processes for sustainable floodplain Term Paper

Understanding ecohydrological processes for sustainable floodplain management - Term Paper Example The important worry is about the water scarcity in the atmosphere of ever growing population. The fundamental aspect is water is necessary for every vital biological activity and food production also gets affected in the context of water scarcity. According to Tolba, Mostafa (2004) mankind needs three times the present amount of water used for irrigation, to produce the food necessary for feeding additional population in the next 50 years. Hence, in the first step to get additional water for food production for the future, the additional water resources should be explored.In the next step, the additional water resources explored should be protected by allowing certain ecological processes that maintain water content on the planet. The fundamental aspect in the above suggestion is about the protection of ecohydrology that needs global dialogue on water for food and environment. To make ecohydrological processes sustain in future, the protection of ecological systems, hydrology and wat er management should be done on global scale, so that every country in different geographical area can share the endeavors of ecological protection. As water is blood stream of biosphere and global industrial development is destroying that blood steam, the protection of ecohydrology without disturbing the industrial development should be discussed. In the context of point of no return, the concept of sacrificing the industrial development for the sake of ecohydrological systems can be explored. However, as the industrial development is also crucial for economic development of mankind the utilization of comforts and the affect of that on the ecological systems can be explored for finalizing the steps need to be taken for the protection of environment. 1 Objectives The objective of this paper is to explore the concepts and aspects that help in preserving the bio diversity thus resulting in restoration of water resources. The extent of presence of greenery indicates the assimilation of CO2. Hence, the presence of vegetation decides the content of CO2 present in atmosphere that helps in global warming resulting in decrease of water resources. So, the main objective is to plan forestation in different parts of the world that can neutralize the global warming to protect or restore water resources. In addition to that the thermodynamic relationship maintenance should be an important objective to neutralize effect of industrialization on water resources. The water resources can be replenished or restored when the liquid and vapor phases reach saturation conditions at regular intervals and sustain up to substantial periods. The change of atmospheric state at the saturated surface should occur periodically every year and those regular intervals is nece ssary for protecting water resources required for mankind as well as industrial development. However, to attain the above point of saturation at maximum number of places on the plane, the extent of usage of water and natural resources at each geographical point in the planet is necessary to restore the necessary vegetation that results in vapor liquid saturation that helps in maintaining and protecting water resources. Another important aspect in restoring water resources used up due to industrial development is protecting and increasing under ground water resources that grow due to percolation of water into the soil. The percolation component decides the capillary rise or fall in water table at a particular point. Hence, the surfaces that allow percolation of water into the soil should not be decreased thus maintaining the capillary rise in water table a constant process. 2 Another objective in this paper is to explore the methods and knowledge of preserving food plain

DQ 6 DQ 7 WEEK 5 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

DQ 6 DQ 7 WEEK 5 - Essay Example Questionnaires were not used because key personal determining the factors affecting price changes in gasoline were not accessible. Other data was collected by use of interview with gas station personnel to gather their opinion concerning possible causes for changes in gasoline prices. Good research provides new and unbiased findings that are important to some entity or group of people. The researcher must not benefit from the outcomes and findings of the study as to ensure the integrity of the findings. Information collected should best represent the population that is being tested. Good research utilizes the most appropriate data collection methods such as surveys, interviews, etc and research tools such as periodical indexes, databases, and Web sites. If the null hypothesis is not rejected, then the alternate hypothesis is not accepted. This is because the initial sample of 30 records did not provide enough information to infer statistically significance of the hypothesis to be tested.

Does the Cosby Show challenge conventional stereotypes Essay Example for Free

Does the Cosby Show challenge conventional stereotypes Essay From 1984 to 1992, The Cosby Show (starring comedian/actor/author Bill Cosby) aired on NBC television network. In the storyline , a black doctor and his family (his wife and five children) lived their everyday entertaining lives. Audiences worldwide watched daily to laugh and admire the African American family ; at the same time they began to ponder about the well-off family and what this said about the conventional black family to the world. Two models are most commonly usedâ€Å"the weak family model† and the â€Å"strong family model†, says Wynona Bryant -Williams Ph. D Director â€Å"with nothing in between. † However it was the weak family model that dominated the social sciences literature until the mid 1980s. (Williams) The Cosby’s set a high standard of the stability and lifestyle of the Black American family. A bold message to send, this also challenged the realism of American culture and how it depicted African Americans and their households. Small-time author Tiffany Frizzel had this to say: â€Å"To be perfectly honest, this show does not show typical life for the vast majority of this nations population. There are not many white children in this nation that have a doctor and a lawyer as parents so that criticism lacks substance and social research. Cosby always kept the show somewhat light-hearted and sometimes shied away from some key issues of the time period, but keep in mind that his name was on the program and everything was written as if the characters were sometimes walking on eggshells. † Apparently it was hard to accept that a black family did not have to struggle or stress. Why? Even though the family still had their household disputes and their lessons to learn , the idea that this particular family of color was doing so well was hard to take and swallow. For many observers, The Cosby Show was unique in other ways as well. For example, unlike many situation comedies, the program avoided one-liners, buffoonery and other standard tactics designed to win laughs. Instead, series writers remained true to Cosbys vision of finding humor in realistic family situations, in the minutiae of human behavior. Thus episodes generally shunned typical sitcom formulas by featuring, instead, a rather loose story structure and unpredictable pacing. Moreover, the soundtrack was sweetened with jazz, and the Huxtable home prominently featured contemporary African American art. Several observers described the result as classy. This project, of course, was not without its critics. Some observers described the show as a 1980s version of Father Knows Best, the Huxtables as a white family in blackface. The Huxtables affluence, they argued, worked to obscure persistent inequalities in Americaespecially those faced by blacks and other minority groupsand validate the myth of the American Dream. One audience study suggests that the show strikes a deal with white viewers, that it absolves them of responsibility for racial inequality in the United States in exchange for inviting the Huxtables into their living room. Meanwhile, the same study found that black viewers tend to embrace the show for its positive portrayals of blackness, but express misgivings about the Huxtables failure to regularly interact with less affluent blacks. For the black family sitting at home watching the show however; it was a revelation long anticipated. This motivated and challenged families to grow closer together. Single, married, and divorced individuals all could view their expectations for their family and their futures based on the uplifting obvious message being sent. For the African American culture , this was an epidemic that needed to expand in the mindsets of everyone else in the world. As far as â€Å"Black Americaâ€Å" was concerned; this was an illustrious thing. So what exactly is the difference between â€Å"Anticipated Black America† and â€Å"Conventional Black America†? E. Franklin Frazier’s â€Å"The Negro Family in the United† States supplied a model for the study of Blacks which emphasized family disorganization and dysfunction ,2 describing the black familys present condition of matriarchy, ineffective black males being marginal to the family, casual sex relations, and general dissolution of the black family to be caused by urbanization and the heritage of slavery. Fraziers work was used for the basis of Moynihans conclusions that identified Black matriarchal mothers as responsible for the breakdown and pathology of Black families (who, he claimed, were responsible for high rates of illegitimacy, delinquency, and unemployment)3. On national renown search engine â€Å"Yahoo. com†, when the words â€Å"negro† and â€Å"black† are entered into the search bar ; words such as unemployment, equality, broken homes, proportion, and black community are given as â€Å"helpful hints† to further specify your search criteria. This is not to say that yahoo alone is portraying this image. But it does conclude a point that this issue should very well be recognized. The mental attitude of the black family’s standards in present America are poor indeed when left up to some critics. Nonetheless, Black America is continuously upgrading and rebelling in all fields of education and occupation. Our greatest and highest recognized entertainers, scholars, preachers, political figures, and moguls are filled with African American people. Many inventions are in existence today because of African Americans. A Black figure is currently running for president of the country! The Cosby Show does not challenge Black America as much as it motivates and really disciplines the mentalities and ethics behind us. The show’s head writer ,John Marcus, had this to say regarding the co-writer and star of the show Bill Cosby: I think Bill knows that he has a power, and that he thinks of it very judiciously. He is conscientious and sensitive to the minds of people who watch the show. And he is very respectful of their intelligence, said Markus. He sees that a more powerful tool in education is to entertain and engage the audience in a delicate manner rather than to hammer home a message. We want to educate black America, but we never want to Sermonize. (1990) It was never the intention of the show nor the writers behind it to preach about high time living to the black families of America. Yet, it was extremely obvious that there was luxury behind the hard work, and it’d all came from the benefit of great education. In the series, Huxtable is a doctor married to an awfully attractive, independent minded, and intelligent woman who has become quite a successful and well established lawyer. His five children all attend school and his children eventually all attend college following after their parents, but with different career motives that they each discover throughout their development from children to young adults. The Cosby Show ’s family is fiction but based on a lifestyle that is meant to be lived and enjoyed by the Black families of America. With the right motivation and the desire to become educated and to fulfill their selves , anyone of any race could very well live a full life without much struggle. The Cosbys did not live without flaws and disappointments. But they dealt with it as a strong and confident family with the continuous support and love of each and every one of their family members. This is a message that needs to be spreaded more and more everyday. The Black family can better themselves if they can get together and make a change to better their mentalities and their environment as well. Following the Cosby’s example; the Black family can succeed. â€Å"If every parent in their community taught their children how to act and teach them the life lessons that they need to succeed. Wouldnt that as a whole help the black community, one family at a time? † This was the question asked in an online discussion about upraising of children in the black community. It begins at home. If we do not or refuse to maintain order at home, there will be none outside of our households. The Cosby Show displays for us that restrictions and rules set inside the house also better govern our black children as they are outside of the household or away from home. By laying down the law in the house, the children were not as in as much trouble as friends and classmates. This distinguished them from the other children in other families on the show as well. With rules came responsibility. According to Senior Magazine Online, as humans responsibility is given to us automatically â€Å"because we are a part of society. † It is also stated that â€Å" It is in this area that we seem to be losing our children. † The main focus within the Cosby family was, without any doubt, family. The family came first. Before work, before friends, and before the personal wants of any individual; the entire family came together and worked together to make their home the joyous place it was. It was stressed as an importance that everyone was responsible in remembering birthdays, talking to their parents about their issues, and continuously seeing that a personal (perhaps assigned) chore was completed everyday. In conclusion, the Cosby Show is due many thanks and many praises. It stands, even today, as a landmark of hope and inspiration for the Black family. Although there are many public voices that are motivating us to push forward and challenge ourselves to complete education and a fulfilling life; the Cosby Show had a powerful message that is not easily forgotten and forever appreciated. The family is the most important part of our foundation. When we look back at what helped us to grow, we should find our family. References 2008 Discussion on saving the Black Community. http://answers. yahoo. com/question/index? qid=20070209125845AAYhqrg. 4 May E. Franklin Frazier (American Sociologist). The Negro Family in the United States. 1939 Interview with Head-writer of The Cosby Show, John Marcus. http://www. medialit. org/reading_room/article344. html (1990) Jhally, Sut, and Justin Lewis. Enlightened Racism: The Cosby Show, Audiences, and the Myth of the American Dream. Boulder, Colorado: Westview, 1992. Senior Magazine Online. http://www. seniormag. com/caregiverresources/articles/caregiv Tiffany Frizzel quoted , The Internet Movie Database, http://us. imdb. com April Wynona Bryant- Williams Ph. D Director , ,http://www. blackperspective. com/pages/mag_articles/sum01_blackfamily. html erarticles/parenting/taking-reponsibility. htm

Amistad: Film and Book Comparison

Amistad: Film and Book Comparison Jinchen Zhao After watching the film Amistad and read the book of this story, I feel like they are both valuable to study the history of America in 1840s. Meanwhile, from my point of view, the book is more academical than the movie while the movie can give you a quick idea about what is really going on in the story and you can feel the story more directly than the book. Now, lets compare them in different aspects. What can the student more readily learn from the film as opposed to the book? After watching the movie, the first thing that I feel different from the book is the mood that those actors behaved were really shocking. From the movie, we can directly feel the eager of those black people whom lead by Cinque want to regain their freedom.The time that Cinque yelled out Gives us free make me feel the power of those black people and this cant be shown in the book. Furthermore, the visual appeal it emanates to the audience, and we all can feel the frustration as the Africans when they want to say about themselves but they cannot due to they are unable to speak English, meanwhile, we all can feel the happiness when they finally have their freedom back. That is hardly to feel when we only read the book. Do the different mediums tell the same story or are there sufficient reasons to argue they do not? This question is pretty hard to tell, in my point of view, they are neither telling the EXACT same story nor they are telling the different story. First of all, the book is more academical resource of the story, and the book is telling us the story more in direct ways. For example: There are a lot of examples about the effect to people, city, countries if the Africans are freed. E.g. Van Buren was more thinking about the influence about his re-election if he choose to free those African people.(p.47) The Cuban Planters always considering the number of free black people they would like to give as they do not want the uprising of them and at the same time, they want profit. (p.19) All those examples made the book a perfect resource for research and the book gives us more details about the environment in the society as well as introduced many political jargon. On the other hand, the story line in the movie is almost the same as the book. From the uprising to got caught and finally earne d their freedom in the end. Yet there is some difference. As we all know. The movie Amistad is a typical Hollywood film, in this case, there is inevitable changes to the original story in order to let people pay to watch the movie and be entertained by the film. For example:In the book, Roger Baldwin was interested in free the African people before the Amistad trial and he was trying to help them in a previous court base. Yet in the film, thats not what the person is, the film want to make the character: Roger Baldwin, have a good turn-around and make the story more interesting,Roger Baldwin only begin to fight for the African people at the end of the movie, he was more caring about his career advancing in the beginning.(p.37 and film). Cinque did not kill the captain of Amistad in the book(p.25), instead he let his friends strangle him. This can be reasoned as the Hollywood movie usually want to build a hero in the film and that is Cinque. The most different thing about the film an d the book is the procedure of the trial. Although they reach the same conclusion: The Africans earned their freedom, but in the book, there are long long story that they used many words to convince that the Africans should earned their freedom while in the movie, it is more likely that all people are persuaded by John Quincy Adams in a matter of time.(p.193) Since the film version of this historical event cannot contain the same amount of detail as the book version, do the details omitted from the film essentially presented different account to the extent that the history portrayed is essentially different from that depicted in the book? From my opinion, the details that omitted from the film does not produce a different story. They are more likely to be a additional remarks to each other. Basically, the book and the film shows us the same story, from the beginning of the uprising to get caught again and through the trails then finally get their freedom back, the main story line are pretty the same,yet there is still differences. The people in the book are more accurate to describe what they really are, their personality, the thinking, the attitude is clearly described in the book. On the other hand, as the major goal of a film is to make audience pay and make them entertained, there are some difference in the film. But in general, the film cannot be called a different story. Is one medium more suited to academic study? Does this make one medium superior to the other when it comes to teaching history in university? To this question, I think the answer is: Yes, the book is more suited to academic study. First of all, the book is extremely informative as it is based on the research those who are extremely well-known in the Amistad subject, legal materials and records from archives. All this gives Jones plenty of valuable information to write a accurate book and provide a deep analysis about the whole story around Amistad. The detail provided by the book is extremely valuable and this makes the book a much more suited to academic study than the book because when people read the book, they can know that this is what really happen in the past rather than thinking which part is changed in the film in order to make people like the movie more. Jones remains neutral in the book and he only gives us the facts of the story. He clearly described how Amistad trial affect the people who were fighting for black peoples rights(p.27), he told us the divide between the North and South of America during the elect ion, and the problem between Spain and America. On the other hand,   the film did present the story to us, but to be honest, although the main story line are the same, yet the details are inaccurate. In academic study, you want to teach students the truth about history and let students know the details of the whole trial. It is just not quite well to use the film to teach in academic study due to the inaccurate and lack of details. Do both mediums use the same sources? And What sort of sources do the film and the book rely on? In my point of view, they are using the different sources, as I said earlier, the book is based on the professors research of Amistad project, court records from archives and legal materials etc. It is more detailed and accurate while the film is almost totally based on the book and made some adjustment to entertain audiences more while earn some profit in the film. 6. If you would be given the task of teaching the history of this subject, is using one medium more preferable than the other for teaching a first-year university class? In this case, as we are teaching a first-year university class. To be fair, it is not easy for students to read a 280+ page books in a short time. In this case, I would say I will use the movie as the primary resource to teach first year students to let them have a general idea about the story. At the same time, I will tell them that there is some problem with the film which is inaccurate and lack of details, I might assign homework or assignment to let student have a research on the books about the difference between the real story and the story that presented in the film. Of course, I will provide a small range of page on the book to help students quickly locate the main points. E.g. Pg20-25. Meanwhile, it is good to write a small essay around 300-400 words after finish watching a 2 hour film. The film is a perfect resource to let first-year students know the general idea of the story and at the same time, it wont be too hard to understand. Although I do believe that reading the wh ole book is much more accurate and full of details. To be fair, it is still not good enough to be a teaching material as we cannot spend whole term on a single story. In conclusion, Amistad is a good story to study the past of 1840s in America, the book is more detailed and accurate about the history and make it a perfect choice of academic study or research while the movie can let us have a wonderful two and half hours of history feast while still can get the main story line. Both material are extremely valuable, we cannot decline any of those two in the function of helping us learning the past. To best describe the relationship between the book and the movie, I think the movie can be the best attachment to the book. The Gender Imbalance in China: History and Overview The Gender Imbalance in China: History and Overview Introduction Carl Max identified social class as the definitive origin of classism as well as of oppression in regards to women. In respect to China, leaders assumed that the birth of the Republic brought with it the demise of class-based discrimination thereby liberating women. But this is not particularly the case as the new society was characterized by amplified efforts to transform the society through masculinization as women became increasingly pressured to act as well as dress in a manly manner. In this respect, the period encompassing the Cultural Revolution saw â€Å"women who tried to look feminine† criticized â€Å"for their improper attitudes† (Ownby, 351). This submission will seek to â€Å"In China’s Modern Economy, a Retro Push against Women† appearing in the New York Times in regards to the picture it paints in relation to gender in China to ordinary American reader. Based on the course as well as various course materials, the article will be critiqued i n regards to the manner in which it displaces various figures presented by the course. Discussion The economic explosion in China has created an array of opportunities for Chinese women on the one hand, but has equally fostered a renaissance of long-introverted traditional values. Increasingly, men as well as women hold the hold the opinion that a woman’s place in society is confined to the home. In this regard, affluent men take mistresses in what epitomizes a modern resurgence of concubines coupled with increasing pressure for women to marry early. In the workplace and particularly the corporate scene, the Socialist-epoch consensus has been substituted with open sexism, which in some intances is toughened by the law (Tatlow and Forsythe, 1). This summation is consistent with the requirement that women bind their feet as the men did as outlined by predetermined cultural norms as well as practices to in an effort to fulfill the need to use the body as attire and therefore use the body as reflection of the society. â€Å"The body was a signpost that could be rearranged by a person to show political allegiance or defiance. The mass hysteria that enforced conformity to Manchu attire unleashed, in turn, affords new insights into the gendered nature of conceptions of the body† (Ko, 20). Patriarchal Society In regards to the article and the impression created to the general reader in America, China is not the society that has been portrayed in various media. It is not a model state in relation to the place of women in the society in comparison with other parts of Asia. The regime has gone to great lengths to portray women as being equal to their male counterparts by declaring their role in the society as being equal to the half the sky (Tatlow and Forsythe, 2). However, the reality is that women still play second fiddle to men and what the Chinese authorities are trying to do is present as false picture to the world in order to justify their position as a global leader underlined by the need to achieve gender equity as well as equality. However, this conclusion does not present itself clearly from the article but the underlying theme of the article is predicated on debunking the erroneous myths advanced to the ordinary American reader. Indeed, while the women in corporate America are struggling with the glass ceiling, their counterparts in China are battling a different and more potent form of career discrimination: the sticky floor. Though the glass ceiling does prevail in China, most women do not seem to progress from the point they entered a career in. They will remain there playing a predefined role in order to meet a specific target. The reality presented here is one where the society tries to maintain as well as control traditional values as opposed to promoting the ideals of a modern woman within a contemporary society. To the American reader, having a woman or several of them in on the board of public or private organization is standard practice due to the inherent advantages within the global business context. However, in the Chinese society as presently constituted, this notion is met with misunderstanding and to some extent boredom by business and government leaders. At this point, the question that begs is why this trend is so prominent in China particularly in state-owned organizations where for instance, a majority of the firms making up the CS300 assemblage do not have women directors despite being owned by the state which could simply make an executive order and make it a requirement for the fairer sex to be represented. A closer look at the article reveals a situation where the society as it were tries to justify why women are still being oppressed and confined to peripheral roles within the great economic renaissance sweeping through China. In this regard, women should be blamed for the precarious situation they find themselves in the present society as they have failed to fight for equality (Tatlow and Forsythe, 3). This conclusion could not deviate further from the truth as the society as presently assembled fails to facilitate the creation of a conducive environment for women to demand their rightful place in the social, economic as well as political realm. Take the Leadership of the Chinese Communism Part as a case in point. The party is primarily dominated by the male gender throughout its ranks. In fact, no woman has ever expressed any intention of ascending to its leadership and by extension the leadership of the Republic due to the patriarchal nature of the current political dispensation th at then defines the interactions within the other facets of the society. Further â€Å"the feminine qualities of irrationality, willingness, regret, romanticism, and love of illusion† have been carried forward to the present generation and as such continue to determine the role women play in the society as regards politics (Barlow and Bjorge, 316). Republican China It is important to take cognizance of the fact that the situation presented by the article has not been sustained throughout the entire history of China. It is therefore important to examine the function women have played historically particularly during the initial decades of the twentieth century- an aspect that has not been adequately examined by the authors. In this regard, the Guomindang Civil Code during the last decade of the 20th century recognized the vital role of an individual in regards to legal purposes. Women were consequently accorded passive agency which, enabled them to resist or endure abuse and if their resistance was judged insufficient, they were criminally liable. Consequently, women were regarded as active agents as well totally autonomous and like men; they controlled their own choices in marriage, sought divorce and inherited property. These then laid the foundation of the new republican society in China (Hershatter, 24). This means that the present society in China was build through an appreciation of the critical role that both sexes can play in building a modern society predicated on class as well as social equality. As previously Stated, the leadership within the Republic views women as holding up half the sky and this statement is therefore not as misplaced as the article would like to portray to the common folk in America. The only difference here being that over time and particularly in the years following the Cultural Revolution, the society changed and perceived the role of women as confined to the home setting. This is why women are today encouraged or rather pressured into marrying early and therefore leaving their career to raise children. New Woman versus Modern Girl The change in gender and sexuality in China during the preliminary decades of this epoch, was first and foremost motivated by the recognition that confining women to their conformist roles within the confines of home and away from the work force meant that their potential to add to the revolution required in the country would remain unexploited and consequently restrain the productivity required to build a modern society as well as economy. To realize this nationalistic goal, China had no option but to construct a novel woman- one who would contribute positively to the state as well as the nation. This woman would be detached from conventional female seclusion based on the fact that labor or gender roles were â€Å"linked with family disaster, with hardship, and barely getting by† (Hershatter, 57). However after China achieved its intended goal as regards to creating a new state, it seems that it was widely believed that women had made their contribution and such, would not be required in China and their place was subsequently their role was confined to the domestic realm. Though a great read, the article fails to take cognizance of these facts in order to give the common reader a lucid picture as to the important contribution made by Chinese women throughput various stages of its illustrious history. What the article does is portray a society that never went through various transformations since the Maoist era where discussing such issues like â€Å"personal life, romantic relationships, or sex was considered bourgeois and hence taboo† (Honig, 143). The new woman created during the creation of the republic therefore differs markedly from the modern girl in the sense that the latter has no role to pray in furthering the goals of the current dispensation as was the case w ith the latter. In this regard, it is important to note that the Cultural Revolution succeeded in creating a modern woman but did not extend the benefits to the modern woman. Positionality in Modern China The current position of women in China is borne out of the realization that the communist regime emphasized gender equality in an effort to unite the two sexes as the nation focused attention on building socialism. The general picture portrayed here is one that depicts gender equality rhetoric that basically epitomizes the reality of inequality in the present society, where women are no more than keepers of the home and therefore cannot play any significant or make any significant contribution to Modern China. Women were only accorded equal status as men in order to for them to get educated and therefore reflect the aspiration of the new Republic. From the article appearing in the New York Times, it is important to examine what being a woman in the current society in China means in regards to the dynamic responsibilities in workplaces as well as the society. The changing social in addition to economic fabric has created numerous opportunities in regards to Chinese women but it is important to interrogate whether these transformations have impacted the roles of women in any significant way. In this respect, a Chinese woman is required by the society, to continue playing her traditional values as espoused by the traditional values esteemed by the cultural stratum while at the same time utilizing the opportunities as well as freedoms presented by the new China (Tatlow and Forsythe, 4). In addition, the growing middleclass living lucratively within the cities is focused on giving their daughter the opportunities they never hand in order to compete effectively with their male colleagues but the idea that women should marry early and consequently leave their careers early in order to raise their children still underlines their perspectives as regards the role of women. This conclusion is supported by fact that even though the Chinese society has changed profoundly in the last few decades, just like other women in the world, they have to strike a balance work and family responsibility if they are going to gain their rightful place in the society (Tatlow and Forsythe, 5). In this respect, a woman can be on the one hand an individual while on the other represent numerous characters. This is markedly different from the manner in which men are viewed as they are only required to be individuals without other characters irrespective of the setting. It is clear that the society under consideration is more opened-minded and continues to recognize the important contribution of women towards social and economic as well as political advancement but societal pressures still persist. Gender differences will therefore continue to influence the way women are viewed and as such, they will never be truly emancipated. Indeed, the powerful assumptions that women are obliged to marry early and consequently focus their energies on families after the birth of a child will account for inherent disparities going forward. More importantly, despite the provisions in law prohibiting discrimination, the vagueness in the writing as well as spirit will continue to maintain the status quo and as such, women will repose as well as reside in the realm of second citizenly from where they cannot make any significant contribution to the future of China (Tatlow and Forsythe, 6). Conclusion The article, â€Å"In China’s Modern Economy, a Retro Push against Women† is great read in regards to painting a true picture of the position women hold in contemporary China. It portrays gender as defining factor in interactions within the society. To the American reader, it depicts are a markedly different situation since the women in the corporate sector there are battling the sticky floor as opposed to the glass ceiling. In essence, the article underscores the need within the society to restrict women to a particular rank without giving them any incentive to progress as societal needs in regards to gender roles must at all times supersede the need to progress career-wise. Works cited Barlow, Tani E and Bjorge Gary J. I Myself Am A woman: Selected writings of Ding Ling. Boston: Boston Press, 1989. Print. Hershatter, Gail. National Countermemories: The Gender of Memory: Rural Chinese Women and the 1950s. Gender and Cultural Memory, 2002: 43-70. Print. Honig, Emily. Socialist Sex: The Cultural Revolution Revisted. Modern China 29.2, 2003: 143-175. Print. Ko, Dorothy. The Body As Attire: The Shifting Meaning of Footbinding in Sebenteeth Century China. Journal of Womens History, 1997: 8-27. Print. Ownby, David. The Gender of Rebels. Du, Shanshan and Ya-chen Chen. Women and Gender in Contemporary Chinese Societies: Beyond Han Patriarchy. Lexington Books, 2013. 385-386. Print. Tatlow, Didi Kirsten and Michael Forsythe. In China’s Modern Economy, a Retro Push Against Women. New York Times, 20th February 2015. Web.

The Decline Of Fatherhood :: essays research papers

The Decline of Fatherhood   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  David Popenoe's 'The Decline of Fatherhood'; discusses the rapid decay of our children due to the loss of male parenting. Popenoe's use of logos and ethos are efficient in the context of the paper to relate the behavior of present day children due to the growing absence of fatherly figures. The author, however, uses very little if any emotional appeal; but because of the nature and direction of the writing, the lack of pathos has no profound effect on the overall intent of David Popenoe's purpose. 'The Decline of Fatherhood'; by David Popenoe is a well written essay that convincingly persuades his view point through intelligent observation of facts. Logos is David Popenoe's most useful tool for argument in this essay. He uses several statistics to show the growing number of fatherless children from the turn of the century until the present, he and then successfully compares it to the alarming amount of growth in the delinquency and scarcity of education in children of the latest generation. The factual information provided with the explanatory details from the author makes his points obvious and clear to the reader. Because of the efficient use of the data and facts, the paper backs itself with rationale and logic which leads the audience to a greater understanding of the science behind the reasoning. For example, Popenoe wrote that only fifty percent of children born from 1970 until 1984 are now living with both parents. The results of this dramatic increase has tripled teen suicide, dropped SAT scores seventy Braithwaite 2 points, increased the drug alcohol rate at an incredibly quicker pace, and has placed thirty-eight percent of the nation's children in poverty. The cause and effect relationships demonstrated by the author are logically appealing and unmistakably apparent in his perspective and studies. The infallible devising of the facts linked with common sense easily portray the convincing ideas of Popenoe on to others as they indulge into his essay.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Yet another great example of appeal is established in the work of the author. The essay is not only well supplied with evidence and explanation, but it takes advantage of the superior credibility and reputation proceeding the writer. Before any words were even read on paper, Popenoe immediately sets an intellectual and believable tone being a professor in sociology. The fact that the writing was conceived by a well educated, knowledgeable man heightens the confidence of the reader to believe the information contributed.

Shakespeare: The Lost Years :: European History Research

Shakespeare: The Lost Years On February 2, 1585, William Shakespeare's twins Hamnet and Judith were baptized in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-Upon-Avon. In 1592 the poet Robert Greene alluded to Shakespeare in his pamphlet "A Groatsworth of Wit Bought With a Million of Repentance." The period between these two dates is known as the "Lost Years" or "The Dark Years" because of the total lack of hard evidence as to what William Shakespeare was doing during this time. Sometime during this period he left home, wife, and three children in Stratford and began his stage career in London. Scholars have long attempted to determine how and why this decision was made, and countless theories have been proposed. It is my hypothesis that Shakespeare, like countless other Englishmen, was caught up in the national crisis caused by the threat of the Spanish Armada during the summer of 1587 and was either drafted into the militia or volunteered for duty to protect his homeland from the threat of foreign invasion. In shor t, he became a soldier, was posted to the London area, and was discharged when the threat was ended. Once the boy had seen the big city, it is hard to send him back to the farm. Before supporting the hypothesis of Shakespeare's possible military activity, it would be useful to briefly look at some of the other theories which have been advanced to account for the lost years. One such is that he had been a schoolmaster during part of this time. The main evidence is based on a statement by a theatrical manager named William Beeston who was unquestionably associated with Shakespeare during his career in London. It is a reasonable and possible hypothesis which could account for part of the seven missing years. A less probable tradition has him as a runaway apprentice, but there is no solid, believable evidence to support this legend. Another widely believed tradition which is almost certainly false is that he left Stratford to avoid prosecution for deer poaching. This theory was broadly based on a rumor involving the Lucy family's deer park. The entire story falls apart because of the simple fact that the Lucys did not have a deer park during the time Shakespeare was in Stratford and indeed did not have one until late in the seventeenth century.

Crepúsculo Essay -- Creative Writing Essays

Crepà ºsculo There is a word that I learned from Pablo Neruda: crepà ºsculo. It means twilight. I swim each night in the twilight of a hundred faces. These are the faces that I see through a silver mist. They are the faces that have found their way to that part of my brain where lost things are kept, neatly stacked, forever pressed behind frosted glass; forever just out of reach. . . . Joe’s face, from across my kitchen table, smiles his gentle smile at me. He sat with me in the kitchen for so long that night, watching as I sorted tiny beads into piles of reds and blues and glowing emerald greens. "What would you do," he said, smiling, if I just--" he gestured with his arms as though about to sweep his hands across the table, sending beads skittering to the floor. "If I just–whoosh." In remembering, we inject into our past a knowledge of the future; in this memory I know that Joe will die in a car crash in four months. Nights when his face appears I see him from across the bald, shimmering expanse of my kitchen table, dotted with gem-like piles of glass beads, and a burst of bright light explodes from his hands to mingle with my twilight sea. Whoosh. . . . I slid my items across the black belt, hand brushing across a sticky patch of dried lemonade. Wheat bread. Italian ices. Peaches. The checker paused, not sure just what to make of those peaches. They didn’t have a helpful little barcode on them, naturally. He was lost without the helpful little barcode. It was his first day. I smiled apologetically at the man behind me in line before realizing that he was not frowning out of impatience. He was staring at my face, my broken face with the blue and red bruise over my left cheekbone. The frown dissipated an... ...riage and children and a job he hates. He wears tattered bell-bottom Levi’s and oversized glasses with silver frames. I think of some of the Europe stories; a train wreck in Austria, a cabin in a Swiss valley: anecdotes experienced by someone I never knew, recounted by a man who wears Polo shirts and mopes when the weekend weather is bad. The horse is for his not-yet-born daughter–the first of two not-yet-born daughters. He plans to place it in her room, and one day soon he will rock her gently back and forth on the red-brown wooden saddle. He carefully tests his creation, and it makes a slow creaking sound on the asbestos tiled floor. A fleeting image punctuates the rocking of the horse, and he is standing in a cool valley in Switzerland, mountains all around him, mountains close enough to touch, yellow flowers by his feet, the cold pine air stabbing his lungs.

Commentary on the opening of Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Alexander von Ramm Essay

The opening of Margaret Atwood’s â€Å"The Handmaid’s Tale† deals with a woman who lives in a gym which has been converted to a kind of camp. By describing the gym she has a lot of flashbacks. In the build up to the story Margaret Atwood uses a lot of literary devices in order to achieve specific goals. The setting, the narrative voice, the structure of the opening passage and her style raise a lot of questions and . Furthermore the opening passage expresses a lot of ideas which might be central to the plot. Achieves a range of effects. Using a detailed setting the author manages to highlight that a lot of things in today’s society changed. The first person narrator describes the gym where she lives by elaborating on the former use of the single objects. (â€Å"a balcony ran around the room, for the spectators,†¦). The description all takes place in a imaginative episode of the past. By describing the perfume, the jewellery and the clothing of the girls she highlights the personal freedom in the former society. (†¦ I could smell, faintly chewing gum from the watching girls, †¦). Furthermore Margaret Atwood states that the blankets still say U.S. This is the last evidence for the big change in the society (and army-issue blankets, old ones that still said U.S.) The description of the former use of the object emphasizes the big change in the society very well. In the former US- society the gym was a place of fun. The games which have been played here express energy and the willingness to play. This play changed into a prison-like place. The reader is immediately pulled into the plot which takes place in a society which is totally different to the one we know. This makes the reader excited to read the complete book. Margaret Atwood employs a special narrative voice in order to express some central ideas of the plot. The whole opening passage is written in first person plural. This shows the shared perspective of the society group the first person narrator (â€Å"WE yearned for the future.†). Furthermore this expresses the sense of solidarity among the women. By describing the past in a sad voice the first person narrator is not happy with her actual life situation. In addition to that the fact that the whole opening section does not have any plot at all and that she concentrates her telling on the past before the big changes in the society expresses her feeling of being trapped. The employed narrative voice gives the reader a first view on the main ideas of the novel. In addition to that there a question raised. For example the first person voice raises the question: † What lead to the shared perspective of the women in the gymnasium?† Furthermore the author works with a well chosen structure again in order to highlight the changes in the society. By employing a binary structure she emphasizes the positive things of the past. She starts by describing the former use of the former use of the gymnasium in the whole first paragraph. The intensity and the positive voice in the first paragraph express her positive opinion about it. In addition to that her sentence in the first two paragraphs which deal with the past are good connected while her sentence in the other paragraphs where she deals with the present are not connected at all. These 3 paragraphs reflect her actual thoughts about her life and the society she lives in. Margaret Atwood expresses via her structure her first person narrators opinion about present and past. Furthermore she again highlights the changes in the society. By using good stylistic elements the author manages to emphasize her points even more. The employed positive imagery is always from the past. That highlights again the positive facts of the past. In addition to that her long and complex sentence structure expresses the first person narrators intelligence- Even though she might be part of the lowest stand in the society she is not stupid. All her stylistic elements are employed in order to emphasize her two points, the change in the society and that the pasts society was so much better than the society of today. By emphasizing her first person narrators intelligence she adds reliability to her story. Margaret Atwoods literary devices express a lot of ideas which might be part of the plot. Regarding her merging of tenses and the content of her opening passage it is quite apparent that the novel will be dealing with a patriarchal society. Furthermore, freedom and control will be part of the plot. In addition to that language and imagination as a tool for independence will be part of the plot as well. These topics were quite important in the realisatione of the book.

Economic Theory Essay

Two of the primary tasks in the world of Economics are prediction and evaluation. This assignment illustrates, at a rudimentary level, how models, techniques and methods constructed or borrowed from Economic Theory or other Sciences respectively are used to help accomplish these tasks. To do so, we consider a standard theoretical model of consumer choices in an economy in which the only activity is the exchange of goods. Due to the above-mentioned we can say that the most powerful technique used to predict the consequences of policies or future trends is modeling. A model is an abstraction intended to convey the essence of some particular aspect of the real world. Most economic models assume the existence of adequate information, yet information is a costly and scarce resource. Good models predict well enough to increase our understanding of certain situations, even though they may not predict them perfectly and there may be related situations in which the same models do not predict as well as expected. Last but not least there are models that constructed without using any numerical data; these are based entirely on economic theory. We shall begin by looking at some of the ways in which forecasting techniques can help us to predict future trends. Most business and economic decisions rest upon forecasts of future conditions. Methods of forecasting may be roughly categorized as follows: * Opinion polling * Mechanical extrapolations * Barometric techniques * Statistical and econometric methods Finally, forecasting techniques vary widely in their accuracy and sophistication. The most accurate technique is to be preferred, subject to the availability of data, expertise and finance and to the nature of the  forecast required. OPINION POLLING The assumption here is that by asking people who are likely to be directly involved, such as consumers or the sales force, attitudes and opinions which affect economic decisions can be assessed and predicted in advance. Opinion polling is a subjective method of forecasting made up largely of a weighted or unweighted averaging of expectations and attitudes. This general idea of developing informed and deliberated polling opinion has had a relatively length history successful experimentation beginning roughly during the 1970s in the U.S.A. In statistics polling is about probability sampling. A good poll: locates people who fairly represent the population we’re interested in; asks them fair, comprehensible and useful questions; calculates results fairly, without reaching beyond the data; and  is reported so people can understand where it does and does not apply. The importance of opinion polling and the way it can be done is shown in the below Figure: Opinion polling is a very powerful technique used to predict future trends. Based upon probability sampling it can give people many answers upon many problems in the society. Depending on the size of the sample, the results are relatively accurate, scientific representation of the entire public’s considered opinion on perplexing issues. Today there are a lot of companies which provide a wide variety of consultancy services and offer top quality research based solutions to their clients’ problems. They also provide full service market research process, from defining research objectives through analysis and presentation of data. To achieve their goals they use research methodologies, advanced statistical analysis and strategic relevant and decision reports. Their credibility and reputation is reflected in the fact that their publicly released findings are regularly quoted by the media (press, radio and television). Additionally, these companies are leading agencies in Socio-Political public opinion polls and Political Candidate Evaluation research. Another aspect of opinion polling is exit-poll. For example scientists use exit-poll method to predict who is going to win in elections. The exit-poll method is not 100% accurate, but the error between the real results and the one’s from exit-poll is very-very small. Asking a small sample of population inside a society it can predict whether the conservative of socialist party is going to be elected. Finally, opinion polling is also used by companies to know which product of theirs is more consumed by people. Asking a small sample of people using questionnaires (more often) they can realize which product of theirs is more consumed by people, which product are less consumed and tries to find means of improvement for others. MECHANICAL EXTRAPOLATIONS This is probably the most frequently adopted method of forecasting. It involves the basic assumption that past patterns of economic behavior continues to the extent that past behavior can be used to predict the future. It has the attraction of also being relatively cheap in that the company is likely to posses most of the relevant historical information. Last but not least, the mechanical methods of forecasting rely on future conditions being an extent of past ones. Also, this method might consist of taking a time series of historical sales figures, and fitting a trend line to it by eye as shown in the figure below: This can then be used to read off sales predictions for the required future dates. To produce this line between the dependent and independent variables of data, as shown in the above figure, the ordinary least-squares (OLS) technique uses a mathematical formula to illustrate this line. However, the technique also produces a measure of the explanatory power of the relationship on the basis of the relationships observed in the original data. A mathematical formula for producing this line is: Where a and b in this equation have been estimated using regression analysis (a set of statistical techniques used to quantify the relationship between two or more variables). BAROMETRIC TECHNIQUES In addition with mechanical extrapolations, barometric techniques assume that present happenings can give an indication of future events. Also, this technique is based on the observation that there are lagged relationships between many economic time series. Moreover, to give an indication of future events, there are three types of indicators as far as economic activity. Leading indicators are those which tend to herald future changes in the course of business activity. Coincident indicators move in step with the cycle; examples of these might include aggregate levels of sales, employment and industrial production. Finally, there are lagging indicators, which trail behind the level of economic activity. Although it is possible to isolate various leading indicators the direction of movements in each does not presage movements in economic activity with complete accuracy. The reason is that the lead-time between their behavior and the ensuing change in economic activity is not likely to be constant. Nowadays, many companies who want to see which of their product is more consumed by people, they make a statistical figure in order to calculate this. Using barometric techniques they can find which product of theirs is more consumed by people, which is not going too well and try to give improvements for others. So, they can indicate from present happenings, how a product can be in the future. STATISTICAL AND ECONOMETRIC METHODS Science is given as â€Å"truth ascertained by observation, experiment, and induction†. The purpose of science known as â€Å"statistics† is to provide the means for measuring the amount of subjectivity that goes into the scientists’ conclusions and thus to separate â€Å"science† from â€Å"opinion†. Hence, statistical and econometric methods, similar to those used in time series regression can be used to analyze the economic relationships between variables. Many of the firms forecasting problems can be solved with a single equation econometric model. Laws of probability are applied to this model in order to determine what â€Å"chances† are for the various possible outcomes of the experiment. The first step in the construction of such a model is to specify the hypotheses, which purport to explain the relationships between the variables. Hypothesis testing is the process of inferring from a sample (a collection of some elements of a population) whether or not to accept a certain statement about the population. The statement itself is called the hypothesis. When the model is constructed it gives the businessman the opportunity of experimenting to test the predicted results of various strategies. There is a vast variety of companies offering a full-service market  research which means the capability to successfully undertake any research project from the conceptual stage through the design, data collection, tabulation, analysis, interpretation of findings, recommendations, and presentation. The projects they undertake span a broad array of industries, types of studies, experimental designs and analytical statistical techniques. They are skilled in the wide variety of quantitative and qualitative techniques, providing their clients with a seamless connection between all phases of the research program. Their full range of custom research for Consumer and Business to Business research includes the following: * Tracking studies * Product testing * Taste testing * Home-use tests * Advertising research * Strategic research * Product Positioning research * Concept tests * Customer satisfaction tests * Etc.

History of bootlegging Essay

1. Background on Bootlegging It has been said that â€Å"at its real level music belongs to everyone†. To claim ownership over music has been the subject of much analysis since music, after all, is available to each individual through our sense of hearing. Maintaining control or possession of â€Å"our† music is not as clear cut as meting out our rights to our land or property. To listen to a song someone else has written, for instance, does not necessarily constitute stealing or trespassing on someone else’s property. The best way to ensure our right and title over our musical creations is to get a copyright over the original piece. Yet it is not uncommon for a listener or a music lover or fan to record a favorite song or a particularly memorable concert attended. People record songs, concerts, and videos and keep such recordings for personal use, or make copies thereof to give to their friends. Songs and videos are also easily downloaded from the Internet. Fans also record different songs and performances, from different albums or concerts, into one CD or online play list to make their own personal collection. The problem is when such recordings are distributed and sold for profit without the artist and the record company’s consent. Generally, copyright violations involving musical creations may be distinguished into three different types : 1) professional counterfeit recordings (unauthorized duplication of sound and art work) 2) professional pirate recordings (unauthorized duplication of the sound, but with original art work, usually sold as â€Å"greatest hits† compilations 3) bootleg recordings (unauthorized recording of live performances) Bootlegging, as it was traditionally defined, involves â€Å"the illegal distribution or production of liquor and other highly taxed goods† In the 1920s, the United States had a Prohibition against alcohol, thus people resorted to bootlegging, or buying and selling an illegal product, from bootleggers. Organized crime consisting of gangs and mobsters in Chicago and New York, such as Al Capone, were deeply involved in bootlegging. In the music industry, music bootlegging involves the taking and trading of unauthorized live recordings of live musical performers — either from concert or studio outtakes. Bootleg music albums are recordings transferred from tape to vinyl or CD. They become a bootleg product when a bootlegger undertakes to create an artifact or when a non-commercial recording is transformed into a commercial product in the form of an LP or a CD. Bootleg recordings are usually done without the artist’s consent ; however, making a recording of a concert is not illegal per se. Although an individual cannot legally record an officially release CD or cassette tape on to a blank tape, he or she may make an unauthorized recording of a concert and keep it for personal use. However, the sale of such a recording is deemed illegal.  The problems with bootlegging is that it prevents the artist and the record company from maintaining quality control over their product , and it prevents them from collecting their royalties to their right to their music. 2. Changes in Copyright Laws Copyright is defined as â€Å"a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U. S. Code) to the authors of ‘original works of authorship’† . The U. S. has passed significant copyright laws to protect an artist’s right to his or her original creations. These creations include not only musical works, but literary, dramatic, artistic and certain intellectual creations. The U. S. Constitution itself provides that â€Å"the Congress shall have power†¦ to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries. † The State thus allows Congress to pass copyright laws to protect an artist’s rights to his or her musical creations. The U. S. Copyright Act was amended in 1976 so that it now covers new technological advancements and extended the term of protection to cover the life of the author plus 70 more years. Copyright laws allow the author, artist, or whoever holds the copyright to a creation to sue those who infringe on their copyrights for damages. The complainant has to prove infringement of copyright by a) proving ownership of the copyright and b) copying by the infringer-defendant. In compliance with its Constitutional mandate of protecting original works of authorship, the Congress has passed several laws concerning music copyright infringement, piracy and bootlegging. Some of the relevant laws will be discussed in this section. The Audio Home Recording Act allows music retailers to sell all analog and digital recording formats. It also gives a consumer the right to use such recordings provided such use is for non-commercial purposes, and in such cases, no copyright infringement lawsuit may be brought against a consumer. The consumer and retailer is also exempt from making royalty payments on digital audio recording devices and media; the burden falls on U. S. manufacturers and importers only who must pay for digital audio devices designed or marketed primarily for making digital audio recordings for private use, whether or not these are incorporated in some other device. These royalty payments are administered and monitored by the U. S. Register of Copyrights and the Librarian of Congress, with the proceeds split between the featured artists and the record company, or between the songwriters and music publishers, depending on the circumstances. Musical artists or musicians thus receive royalties which are based on record sales and airplay during a prescribed period. The U. S. is also a signatory of both the World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty and the Performances and Phonograms Treaty. In accordance with these international agreements, the U. S.  Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act which makes it a crime to a crime to circumvent anti-piracy measures built into many of today’s commercial software and even most music CDs. The Act also limits the copyright infringement liability of ISPs for transmitting information over the Internet, but requires that ISPs remove copyright infringement materials found in users’ web sites. Despite legislative acts and proposed bills by well meaning members of the U. S. Congress, and jurisprudence laid down by the U. S. Supreme Court, infringers still find a way of getting around copyright laws by invoking the â€Å"fair use† doctrine. The U.  S. Code provides that the public is entitled to the â€Å"fair use† of copyrighted material. â€Å"Fair use† is â€Å"a privilege to use copyrighted material in a reasonable manner without consent, notwithstanding the copyright monopoly granted to the owner. † A copyrighted original creation may be reproduced for purposes of criticism, news reporting, comment, teaching, scholarship and research. The Code further provides that there are four factors in determining whether there is â€Å"fair use† of a copyrighted material or not : 1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes ) the nature of the copyrighted work itself 3) the proportion and substantiality of the copyrighted work actually used without authority 4) the potential economic detriment on the value of the work caused by such unauthorized use thereof. What makes it especially difficult to enforce the copyright is that information is so readily available through the Internet. As music is downloaded courtesy of digital technology, consumers are turning to the Internet to get their music rather than going out to music stores to buy the CDs. Bootlegged albums are also easily transmitted and shared through the Internet. Digital technology allows consumer to reproduce identical copies of digital music files, most commonly in compression formats such as MP3s. Such digital advancements not only pave the way for more widespread bootlegging, but for music piracy as well. 3. Advancements in Piracy Technology: File Sharing Piracy, as earlier discussed, is differentiated from bootlegging in that the former involve the unauthorized duplication of the sound, but with original art work. Piracy involves the reproduction and distribution of copies of original recordings. Advancements in digital technology have allowed music piracy to develop at an alarming rate. MP3s enable consumers to compress digitized music into smaller files, while ripping software allows them to copy music from CDs, store these on their hard drives, and then convert these files into compressed formats. Digital file reproduction devices, like CD players, in turn allow consumers to write these files into a CD and in effect create their own albums and compilations of copyrighted creations. Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks have also allowed increased music dissemination, as well as file sharing, as introduced by the infamous Napster software company. P2P networks basically offer users to access the hard drives of other users anywhere in the world by the installation of a piece of software. These networks allow users to search, copy and transfer music files typically through MP3 files. After Napster, subsequent P2P networks version, like KaZaA and Grokstar, which are collectively known as the FastTrack providers, allow users to access multiple individual computers instead of accessing just one single, centralized database of music files. The digital audio workstation (DAW) on the other hand, allows users to indulge in â€Å"sampling† – original music recordings, converted from analog to digital format, which users can import, cut, copy, layer and manipulate to create new musical work. Since samples may be in a band’s entire song, or merely passages from an instrument, in effect it allows not just users but even musicians and DJs to create, layer, expand and redefine music. Recording companies have resorted to copy-protection technology to protect themselves from piracy committed through file sharing and P2P networks. Copy-protected CDs is one answer, but public backlash and concerns about the technology’s effectiveness, have forced recording companies to limit use of such CDs in the U. S. and instead opted to release such CDs abroad in Europe and countries such as Japan. Five major recording companies in the U. S. use copy-protected CDs: BMG Entertainment, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, EMI, and Sony. BMG in particular has made us of copy-protection advancements such the MediaMax CD-3 technology from SunnComm Technologies, Inc. located in Phoenix, Arizona. Through MediaMax CD-3, each song is written onto a CD twice. One format is readable by standard CD players while the other format is readable as a Windows media file playable on a computer. The technology allows consumers of BMG records to burn each track only three times per computer. The songs in BMG albums embedded with the MediaMax CD-3 technology may also be emailed to a limited number of people. However, each person in that limited list may only listen to ten times to each song in the album. In other words, songs in such CDs are locked and won’t be played even if they are downloaded from file-sharing networks if it exceeds the allowable number of times a person may listen to the track. Other developments are even more rigid. The CDS-300 developed by Macrovision, located in Santa Clara, California, allows CDs to be burnt and listened to online, but blocks other attempts to make copies or share music online. Recording companies thus are faced with a difficult balancing act. On the one hand, there is the need to respect a consumer’s desire to share, copy and hear songs in different ways. But on the other hand, there is the copyright to take note of and the bottom line – earning revenues through royalties by limiting the number of copies consumers make of copyrighted musical creations.

Parenting and Psychology of children Essay

1. Discuss how a person’s beliefs (i.e.: nature vs. nurture; medical vs. behavioral) have a profound impact on our understanding and interactions with children. A belief can be defined as something, which a person is accepting as true whatever may be the situation. All the reactions of a person will be based on these core beliefs (Where Core Beliefs come from, 2008). People fail to see reality in front of them if they are blind in such beliefs. Each and every person in this world will be a bundle of beliefs and superstitions that he or she has gathered from the childhood days onwards. These beliefs may be about oneself and about the environment or surroundings. Negative beliefs about oneself would result in channeling the entire energy, money and everything he has towards moving away from these beliefs and in this effort they will move away from love. Such people will not be able to understand or interact properly with their children.   When people become educated they discard most of these beliefs and view whatever that is happening in their life with an open mind. But less educated people strictly follow these beliefs and would not be able to understand their children properly and interact with them properly. Some people will become strong followers of these superstitions, when they face serious problems in their life. There are beliefs about the time of birth of children and some people in India believe that the star in which he was born will govern the character of a child. This creates a lot of misunderstandings of the behavior of the child. The way of interaction will not be normal when these beliefs are in the mind of the parent. Girls and boys are brought up in different ways in many societies because of these beliefs (People, 2008). 2. Many things contaminate the waters of the earth, including the amniotic waters. What do you see as the greatest threats? The greatest threat of the today’s world is the non-availability of quality drinking water as a result of the unscrupulous contamination of all the water resources by humans. One billion people do not have good quality water to drink. Children die in every second due to diseases caused by waterborne contamination. Most of the aquifers including well are contaminated. Tap water, which is supplied as free purified drinking water in most of the countries, are also contaminated. People are turning towards bottled water and its business is the quickly increasing and developing business of the century. But now even the bottled water cannot be trusted upon. The factors that lead to the water contamination are many. The most important ones are the elimination of toxic wastes including heavy metals into water by industries and sewage pollution, which introduce harmful disease causing organisms into water. The world population is increasing day by day and the availability of water is decreasing day by day. If it continues like this the next generation will have only less water to drink and finally there will be no water at all, not only for drinking but to carry out all the other activities, which require water. We are having a ‘right’ to have good water, but future generations will be deprived of this right. This is one of the greatest crimes that can be done to our children (Wetzel, 2008). 3. Now that we have discussed the issue of consciousness, how would you explain the concept of intelligence and morality? The ability of an organism to process information is called as intelligence. It is actually a biological trait and using this trait one can decide the effectiveness of his actions in achieving his goals. The manner in which information is processed is the measure of one’s intelligence. This trait is there not only in humans, but also in all the living creatures that are having a central nervous system. Although this concept was a matter of study for many researchers for many years a clear-cut definition has not been made. Although people talk about this aspect quite frequently it is very difficult to explain what it is actually. This is because the word is having many technical senses associated with it and so its ordinary sense is indescribable. The concept of intelligence is different from that of competence. For example a person may be competent in math and another may not be. This doesn’t mean that the former is more intelligent. The latter will be competent in other subjects in which the former is less competent. Competence can be acquired quite easily, but intelligence cannot be acquired very easily. So both intelligence and competence have a role to play in a person’s performance. Intelligence is a quality of mind that is present in different degrees in different people. It is actually not known whether this is having a biological or environmental origin. Both nature and nurture can affect the intelligence of a person. There are some features closely associated with intelligence (Nickerson et al., 1985). It can be called as the ability of a person to classify patterns. It is also the ability to adapt one’s behavior through the process of learning, it is the ability of reasoning and it is the ability to understand and use skills that are present. Finally it is the ability to understand everything around. These abilities will enable a person to process information passed on to him in the correct way. Three central aspects of intelligence are adaptation, induction and deduction. Through adaptation one can easily cope with the environment. So adaptation leads to change in behavioral patterns. Deduction is the ability to draw conclusions from whatever that is happening around. Induction is the ability to understand a general law from whatever that is happening around. It is very difficult to acquire these aspects from schools or colleges. It has to come from within, from mind. The concept of morality is also not explained accurately by anyone. Some consider it as a set of rules which one should follow, where are for some others it is their principles in life. For some people whatever parents and society taught them is regarded as morality. Some believe that morality is what they think right and are of the idea that different people have different morality and people should not interfere in each other’s morality. Religion as well as political environment in which one lives also influences the concept of morality by a person. Morality affects the conduct and behavior of a person in the society. It also affects interaction between people. It is morality that actually governing our contacts within the family among friends, in church or any such religious place and also in the work place. A person’s attitude towards everything around him including his parents and children will be determined by his sense of morality. It will also determine his attitude towards life and death, war and peace etc. Thus it plays an important role in every aspect of a person’s life. 4. How can we, as parents, as educational and spiritual models, produce the â€Å"Christ† child (or one who is strong, accepting, capable of unconditional love, humane, and peaceful)? In order to bring up a child who is strong, accepting, capable of unconditional love, humane and peaceful as Jesus Christ, it is necessary that parents should follow Christian parenting. There are many books that provide information on Christian parenting, but the best book is of course The Bible. The parents should represent themselves as spiritual models to their children and educate them on the principles of Christianity. If the parents could make Jesus as a real model for their children, definitely, they will imitate all the characters of Jesus Christ. Such parents should understand that to bring up such a child, the first thing they can do is to pray for the child. This itself brings a lot of difference to the kids (A Christian Parenting Resource†¦..The Word, 2008) During the young age itself children should be attracted towards bible and prayer. Apart from these, the story of Jesus may be told to instill the personality of Jesus. When they enter into teens, intensive teachings on the principles of Christianity should start. The parents should spend quality time with them playing and laughing with them and answering all their embarrassing questions. In this way they can become the trustworthiest person in the child’s life and then it will be easy to guide them according to the principles of Christianity.